Stripe feels modern, but its developer-first approach has deep roots in 1995–1998: HTML forms, CGI scripts, early JavaScript, and the first mainstream patterns for integrating dynamic services on the web.
Between 1995 and 1998, the web standardized around URLs, HTTP methods, forms, and CGI—creating the practical habits that later matured into resource-oriented APIs and REST architectural style.
From 1990 to 1994, the Web’s earliest HTTP interfaces quietly introduced the core patterns that modern CMS programmability depends on. This chapter connects those early request/response ideas to the later WordPress REST API.
From HTTP/0.9 GET to early headers and CGI, 1990–1994 quietly established the core patterns behind today’s headless CMS APIs and content delivery.
In the Web’s first years, “APIs” were often just URLs and forms hitting CGI scripts. Those primitive HTTP interfaces introduced a surprisingly modern idea: clients can influence what data they get back—an early ancestor of today’s client-driven data fetching and GraphQL-style thinking.
From the earliest HTTP requests to CGI-driven endpoints, the Web’s 1990–1994 interface ideas quietly shaped the patterns that power today’s GitHub API automation—webhooks, CI triggers, and machine-to-machine workflows.
A look back at 1990–1994, when the Web’s earliest HTTP patterns—resources, links, forms, and simple request/response behavior—quietly established the API ideas that later powered Facebook Platform APIs and the social graph.
Between 1990 and 1994, the Web’s earliest HTTP interactions weren’t called “APIs,” yet they introduced resource identity, uniform operations, and stateless requests—the same building blocks REST would later formalize.