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Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

Kizer says>"However, it seems to me that elements of the REST "style" are constricting for no reason.

Probably b/c you don't understand REST and its history?

Kizer says>"I can't summon any kind of compelling justification for a restriction to only GET, PUT, POST, DELETE - aside from their analogy with CRUD I guess."

That is an invalid analogy, but your desire to know why it is an invalid analogy may motivate you. Learning about REST will enlighten you.

Kizer says>"Could anyone please enlighten me?"

Unfortunately enlightenment is something one must gain oneself. Google for "Representational State Transfer REST" and follow the most interesting URLs until the light bulb goes on. Or try:

https://www.google.com/search?q=best+introduction+to+represe...

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I've googled and read but it's not getting through - I'm sorry. Could you offer an answer or explanation yourself?

I think you can give it more than 22 minutes' thought before you call yourself a failure. I'd suggest that you take a week or so perusing the literature.

There are so many excellent sources concerning REST on the Internet, I believe you will not fail to achieve enlightenment.

Being condescending and saying "Google it" isn't helpful. If you don't know enough about a topic to help someone, you have no room to talk down to them.

What happened to telling someone to go to the proper sources? The good info on REST is there on Google, or Bing, or Yahoo or DuckDuckGo. Right there, up front.

I retrieved some old files/notes on REST today and was enjoying the memories. But should I help someone who foolishly tosses out accusations of condescension or another who speaks of "non-answers" when all the answers one needs are out there purely for the reading?

Indeed, due to the settled nature of REST it seems hardly a suitable topic for HN, like asking "Why SQL?" or "Why FORTRAN-77"? The thread topic question was asked/discussed/answered in all respects nearly two decades ago. Its so old that some information about REST is aging off the WWW and the original participants are starting to die off (don't get your hopes up, Microsoft!).

Why SQL? Edit: Joking aside, I had read the information on REST. I did give it more than a few minutes' thought prior to posting. But I still did not quite understand its prevalence today; perhaps that speaks to my inability to comprehend or analyze information. Regardless, I decided to post on HN in the hopes that someone would help me out - I wasn't arguing for, nor against, REST. Could you suggest another forum where to post? What else should I do when I've read the available information and still don't "get it"?

You mention that such a thread was discussed ~20 years ago, and such information is so old that it's aging off the web. Considering that I was a toddler ~20 years ago, I could not have understood it then, I think. So why not start a new thread now to replace the threads aging away?

> What happened to telling someone to go to the proper sources?

Good question, why don't you trying actually doing that with references to specific, useful sources if you think that is what is necessary?

> Indeed, due to the settled nature of REST it seems hardly a suitable topic for HN

If you feel it's OT, then flag and move on rather than threadcrapping.

(Also, REST is rather far from settled; a variety of different things called REST are popular, but they aren't the same thing as eachother or over time, and they often are quite distant from the architectural style Fielding described.)

Giardini continues to offer non-answers and condescend>

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