episode 17 — Early Web History and Interlisp with Larry Masinter.

We sit down with internet pioneer and longtime IETF contributor Larry Masinter to revisit the origins of many technologies developers use every day. From his early days at Xerox PARC to co-authoring foundational RFCs on HTTP, URIs, and more, Larry shares first-hand stories that connect the early web to the world we build in now. The conversation also explores his current passion project: reviving the Interlisp environment as a living historical system.

Learn more:

• https://larrymasinter.net/ — Official website from Larry Masinter
• https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616 — RFC 2616 – HTTP/1.1 Specification
• https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986 — RFC 3986 – URI Generic Syntax
• https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2324 — RFC 2324 – Hypertext Coffee Pot Control Protocol
• https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2732 — RFC 2732 – Literal IPv6 Addresses in URLs
• https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-masinter-dated-uri — Draft: the 'tdb' and 'duri' URI schemes, based on dated URIs
• https://interlisp.org — The Interlisp Revival Project

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:34 Introduction to Larry Masinter
• 05:32 The Intellectual Environment at Xerox PARC
• 06:49 The Interlisp Project and Its Impact
• 10:05 Transitioning to Document Servers and HTTP
• 12:02 Resources, Gopher and the Early Web
• 15:45 Why did HTTP succeed where Gopher faded away
• 20:56 Larry's Involvement in Web Standards and Protocols
• 25:11 Reviving Interlisp post-pandemic
• 27:13 interlisp.org, 5 years later
• 32:57 The Tradition of April 1st RFCs
• 33:51 Invention of Hypertext Coffee Pot Control Protocol (1998)
• 37:04 The Invention of HTCPCP
• 40:55 Exploring URI Schemes
• 47:58 Form-Based File Upload
• 49:12 The Politics of Web Standards
• 01:05:12 The Evolution of Web Protocols
• 01:05:53 Developing in the Interlisp Environment
• 01:14:03 Goals of the Interlisp Revival Project
• 01:23:39 Collaborations and Future Aspirations
• 01:25:09 Outro

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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj