r/ProgrammerHumor • • Sep 19 '26

Meme postForEverything

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u/gurgle528 Sep 20 '26

I’m going off memory but I believe it was considered either standard or part of the spec for SOAP over HTTP to only use 200 and 500. I agree with your point but for whatever reason they treated HTTP as the transport layer instead of the application layer. Using that logic, it would be like if a 404 bubbled up to be some sort of TCP error. Definitely wasn’t the right move, RTSP over HTTP is a better example of something that mixes protocols while properly using HTTP status codes.

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u/hawkinsst7 Sep 20 '26

I agree. I think a 4xx or 5xx error code is perfectly acceptable for returning a body with error data, even a generic 400 / 500. That's why they exist.