What is the relationship between the different WebSocket protocol versions?

Question

I recently learned that there are a plethora of WebSocket protocol specifications (a bunch of them named hixie-, another bunch of hybi-, and finally a RFC 6455).

I assumed that hixie- and hybi- were previous drafts, and that the RFC is "the final word" towards all the implementations will eventually converge. However, I was surprised to discover that the RFC is from December 2011, while the latest hybi-* is from February 2012.

Could someone please shed some light? What is the historical development of all those branches and what is the roadmap for the future?

By the way, do those funny names (hixie and hybi) stand for something?

Answer 1

"Hixie" stems from Ian Hickson [email protected] .. original proposer/author of the WebSocket protocol.

"Hybi" stems from "hy_pertext bi_directional" .. IETF working group "BiDirectional or Server-Initiated HTTP (Active WG)".

The latest and final RFC is RFC6455. Do implement that.

Hixie-75/76 are deprecated, security flawed, outdated versions that were in use for some time.

Hybi-Draft-N .. where N is .., 10, .., 18 mark revisions of the protocol during the development of the final RFC from draft RFCs.

Everything >= Hybi-10 are only small variants of the final RFC6455.

In short: read and implement https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6455 and you will be fine.