The years were 2001-2002 and we were returning HTTP requests' data using “our own text format” 😂 😂

Going through my old files, I happened to find this diagram on a larger project which I was employed as a developer back in late 2001 early 2002:

The diagram was by my project manager. Other team members and I were assigned to theblue box:

• For web clients, we returned complete HTML pages.
• For Windows executable clients, we returned only data. So the web server application was also kind of providingWeb API service.

Back then,XML was only a few years old... The project manager decided not to use it: too heavy with all the tags, bandwidth and speed were factors in this decision.JSON has just come out, and we were not yet aware of it... I don't recall it was ever mentioned in any of the project meetings.

The project manager decided to go with “our own text format”: we packaged data up on the server-side using this format, returned it viaHTTPS, and at the client-side, the data was parsed into theBorland VCL client dataset ready for further manipulation.

It was fun, but time-consuming, column values boundaries did pose some difficulties especially with blob values. 2022 -- we just useJSON 😝

I have forgotten about this project... finding this diagram brings back some memories, I felt the urge to write this post.

Back then, online gaming was still a new industry, there were new legislations just put in place, we were not required to go through any security check, but we were issued with aspecial employee licence, there were certain gambling activities that we were not allowed to participate while working in the industry:

Over the years... my hair decided to go... Painful, but what can I do 😾. Thank you for reading. And stay safe.