Stage 01 of six
Origins
Everything below starts here: one machine at CERN, a protocol that was never allowed to break, and the sediment that decision left in every specification since.
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The first server
Tim Berners-Lee wrote it on a NeXT cube at CERN, and the protocol it spoke is recognisably the one still in use.
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The standards split
The W3C and the WHATWG went different ways on HTML and eventually converged again.
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Why nothing is ever removed
The web cannot break old pages, so every mistake is permanent.
The rest of the chain
Five other stages02 Resolution
Turning a name into an address.
03 Trust
Why the padlock means anything.
04 Rendering
From bytes to pixels.
05 The Cascade
Which rule actually wins.
06 Where Browsers Differ
The gap between spec and behaviour.