REST, I just don't get it

As the guy who created CouchDB, I should be a big cheerleader for RESTful architectures. But the truth is, I just don't get it.

For CouchDB, REST makes absolutely insanely perfect sense. Read a document, edit, put the document back. Beautiful. But for most applications, enterprise or not, I don't see what the big win is.

I know what is wrong with SOAP, and it has everything to do with unnecessary complexity and solving the same problems twice. But what is the big advantage of making all your calls into GET PUT and DELETE? If POST can handle everything you need, then what's the problem?

I guess what I mean to say is just because SOAP is a disaster, doesn't somehow make REST the answer. Simpler is better, and REST is generally simpler than SOAP. But there is nothing wrong with a plain old POST as an RPC call. If its easy to make all your calls conform to the RESTful verb architecture, then that's good, I guess. But if not, then just use a POST as an RPC call, keep it as simple as possible and be done with it. And don't spend another minute worrying about being RESTful or not.

Posted August 14, 2008 9:04 PM