Yet More Trouble with REST APIs?

"Are we simply missing well defined rules for designing good REST APIs, or is this really a lost cause as JJ suggests?"

Yes, I think we're missing a clearly define spec for what REST is, and how it should work.

I recently wrote a REST service, and I did a LOT of extra research into almost every aspect of it. I say almost every, because even a couple months later, I'm still finding things I think I could have planned better, had I read the article in time. Right down to the URI scheme. (In particular, plural vs singular.)

It would have been really nice to have all that info condensed into a single best-practices document or spec.

I think Orwell's closing advice to writers in his essay "Politics and the English Language" applies here:

> Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm