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by jjtheblunt 1418 days ago
> WebSocket can run on top of HTTP/2

Isn't "websocket" just a standard tcp socket, whose specification to instantiate it was born in a comparatively ephemeral HTTP (of whatever version) request, and which outlives the request, so isn't on top of anything other than tcp?
2 comments
wmf 1418 days ago
No, despite the name WebSockets are not plain TCP.
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jjtheblunt 1418 days ago
They're an http protocol for setting one up, you mean?

First sentence at this article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket

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jhugo 1418 days ago
No, they're more than that. After you upgrade to WebSocket you still have to speak the WebSocket protocol over TCP. It includes message framing — with different defined message types, masking, ping/pong, an extension system (including for example optional per-message compression), ...
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aaaaaaaaaaab 1418 days ago
TCP is a stream of bytes. WebSockets are message-based.
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