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Comment by froggertoaster | Hacker News Reader

> this is not REST

I feel like almost every API could have this footnote.

What makes most APIs not REST?

When people are being pedantic, "REST" refers specifically to a set of architectural guidelines for application and API design, including things like statelessness and HATEOAS[1]. Most "REST" APIs don't adhere to these, and are just endpoints for shoving JSON around (sometimes with idiomatic HTTP verbs).

But this is pedantry. REST has become a generic term for "shoving JSON around," for better or worse.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HATEOAS

In the case of this one you have a POST to delete and a POST to upload. Instead of POST, PUT, and DELETE requests. Thats just from a quick glance.

Most of them fail to meet one of the requirements in the "uniform interface" section; generally, in my experience, either "self-descriptive messages" or "HATEOAS".

REST is the “agile” of API design. Everyone says they do it, but everyone does it a little differently, and nobody adheres to the actual definition (because the actual definition is far too prescriptive to be fully applicable in reality)

What is REST?

It's the think that killed SOAP (and thank goodness it did).

This non-answer is about on par, where evasiveness is concerned, as the previous comment that I was responding to.

What's REST? What makes most APIs not REST?

Getting into deep pedantry here but I’m amused by the suggestion that the following is “too prescriptive”:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Yes. Agile is very malleable. SCRUM, which is what I assume the comment you're responding to means, is just one heavily prescriptive implementation of Agile. Of course these days people generally mean "SCRUM" when they say "Agile" which is likely due to many orgs blindly adopting the former. It's unfortunate but it is what it is, I guess.

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