alt Hacker NewsUp to TCP most protocols are very straight forward, atleast getting them to work semi reliable. But then TCP explodes in complexity with all the state management and possible paths a connection can take.
HTTP is mostly annoying because of all the text parsing :D
Yeah...HTTP/1 is one of those weird cases where the older protocol is considerably more difficult to implement correctly than the newer ""more complex"" standard. This is especially true if you want your server to work with they myriad of questionably compliant clients out in the world.
HTTP/3 might have been easier, and using QUIC+HTTP/3 in your hobby OS is a fun flex :)