Searching for very old HTTP (0.8?) specification

[Lasse Hillerøe Petersen]

I am looking for a file which is probably called http-spec.txt, which is
an early definition of the HTTP protocol, preceding the HTTP 1.0 version
described in RFC 1945. I believe I have a very old printout of HTTP
version 0.8 or 0.9 somewhere in my paper piles, but I'd really like to
have a digital version.

Where can I find this? The archives of the IETF and W3C don't seem to
have anything that old?

-Lasse

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Post by Lasse Hillerøe Petersen
I am looking for a file which is probably called http-spec.txt, which
is an early definition of the HTTP protocol, preceding the HTTP 1.0
version described in RFC 1945. I believe I have a very old printout
of HTTP version 0.8 or 0.9 somewhere in my paper piles, but I'd
really like to have a digital version.

At http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/WWW/Protocols/ we read:

"HTTP/0.9
The original HTTP protocol did not use any resource metainformation and
could be described in just a few pages. It was abandoned when it became
clear that we wanted to serve more than just HTML on the Web."

which refers to http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/AsImplemented.html
("The Original HTTP as defined in 1991").

See also http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.96/group6/31.htm
which confirms my impression that pre-1.0 HTTP was just informally
described and later called HTTP/0.9 to distinguish it from HTTP/1.0.

The archive section http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/index-wgh.html
contains several Internet-drafts with HTTP/1.0 in their title, starting
from http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-ietf-http-v10-spec-00.txt
(dated March 8, 1995). But apparently HTTP/1.0 started as an informally
described protocol. As http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/WWW/Protocols/ says
later on the page:
"The only documentation for early versions of the HTTP/1.0 protocol
consisted of a discussion draft in HTML form, written by Tim Berners-Lee
and later updated by Ari Luotonen and a host of characters on www-talk."
and links to http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/HTTP2.html which is titled
"Basic HTTP as defined in 1992" and starts "This document is an Internet
Draft." but apparently was just a draft for an Internet-Draft.

[Lasse Hillerøe Petersen]

Post by Jukka K. Korpela
See also http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.96/group6/31.htm
which confirms my impression that pre-1.0 HTTP was just informally
described and later called HTTP/0.9 to distinguish it from HTTP/1.0.

Thanks.

I still have a few files from around 1993/1994, so I guess it must be
thereabout. That fits well with the original informal specification
slowly evolving into a draft for HTTP 1.0 as an RFC, released as 1945 in
1996. I recall some years ago while packing old papers away, holding the
printouts of pre-1.0 HTTP, HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1, and thinking "oh my
how the complexity has grown."

It would seem that I have to dig up the printout after all;
unfortunately they are in storage, so it'll not be as easy as just
getting a file from the web. :-)

It would be cool from a historical point of view, if an old backup tape
of info.cern.ch from around 1993/1994 could be found and restored.

-Lasse