WebSockets weren’t a 1990s technology, but the need for real-time interaction was. From CGI and HTML forms to early JavaScript and frames, 1995–1998 introduced the patterns—and the pain—that later shaped the WebSocket API.
From 1990 to 1994, the Web’s earliest HTTP interfaces were built for document retrieval, not event delivery. This chapter explains how those design choices delayed “push” and web notifications—and why that mattered for later web APIs.
Server-Sent Events (SSE) arrived much later, but the need for streaming updates was visible from the Web’s earliest days. This chapter traces how HTTP’s simple request/response model (1990–1994) created both the problem—and the early experiments—that led to modern streaming web APIs.
In the Web’s first years, HTTP’s simple request/response model made “real-time” feel out of reach. This chapter traces the early interface patterns—HTTP/0.9, evolving headers, and CGI scripts—that set the stage for later solutions like the WebSocket API.