Learn Web3 in 100 Days - Day 3: What are HTTP Status Code
Why are there status codes for HTTP? You may wonder about the purpose of those status codes. Let’s explore more on what may become logic beyond those codes.
TL;DR
What are the Status Codes
Classifications of Responses
HTTP Standardized Protocol
Notorious 404
Trivia Reason
Angel 404
404 Curse
The Truth
How It Matters in Web3
What are the Status Codes
The status codes are responses after the server’s and client’s communication results. Similar to a human being who responds with language to another human being's communication, the computer talks with numbers. There are 5 classes for the standard response in HTTP.
Classifications of Responses
It is categorized with the beginning of the digit.
1xx means successfully received the request and continuing processing
2xx means successfully received
3xx means further actions required
4xx means client errors found
5xx means server errors found
Your computer is a client who tries to request a service from the server in the remote. Just to keep that in mind.
HTTP Standardized Protocol
Remember the Ethereum protocol? A protocol is a set of rules that lay out the foundation of how the program should behave. Thus, those categories of responses are part of the HTTP protocol you expect the computer should follow.
Notorious 404
People are anxious to see page 404 because it is an error page which got nothing there. It is a common reaction of 404 as a disappointment that something does not operate the way it should or was missing.
Why 404 then? Does it look like SOS in a backward fashion or for other trivia reasons?
Trivia Reason
The first argument is that 404 is coming from Room 404. The story was the World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and co-developer Robert Cailliau were working on the 4th floor of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland) and their server was located in Room 404 dated back then.
Later, Robert Cailliau denied the theory and stated that it was nonsense!
Angel 404
If you are into spiritual and Tarot Cards, 404 means lucky that Angel is around you. It is a message from guardian angels that help to point you in the right direction.
404 Curse
404 may also link to a tragedy like aviation accidents and incidents.
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1973: Japan Air Lines Flight 404 got hijacked and killed 12 people.
1989: Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404 disappeared with a total of 54 people after taking off about 16 minutes.
1990: Alitalia Flight 404: crashed and killed 46 people.
The Truth
The 404 is probably nothing but a code from the programmer to interpret the status of the server.
First digit 4: means an error from the client.
Second digit 0: means error from the general purpose
Third digit 4: means specific error family
How It Matters in Web3
Web3 has its own protocol and the error code is different from HTTP. However, it serves the same purpose of noticing programmers what went wrong and how to fix it.
In conclusion
You can now understand how the status code works and 404 interesting histories.
The next topic I will touch on is web2 and wbe3 in general.
