I like writing toy servers too, but I don't get a lot of opportunities, so my latest project is a programming challenge that presents a new protocol spec every 2 weeks for people to implement, and automatically tests the implementations[0].

OP says:

> Goal: write a basic server that can handle the WS handshake and parse an incoming WS frame to see the message sent from the client

> Non-goals: writing a robust or real HTTP server, writing a fully compliant WS server, or handling all edge cases

This is a great way to get started with something that you don't yet understand. I sometimes think of it as implementing "just enough to trick people into thinking that it works".

FWIW, I think the implementation in this post has a bug whereby a client that sends half an HTTP request will block the entire server from accepting further connections, because handle_request() makes blocking calls to recv() until it has a full request, and the program can't accept new connections until handle_request() returns. That's the spirit!

[0] https://protohackers.com/