You're right that HTTP is not suitable for a wide-range of tasks. There are, however, very real alternatives which people use all the time to better meet specif

You're right that HTTP is not suitable for a wide-range of tasks. There are, however, very real alternatives which people use all the time to better meet specific needs. Wikipedia has a good source of protocols used across the Internet - you'll recognise a lot as they have significant usage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_protocol