Why You're Wrong About REST

The web has been around for nearly 40 years, yet despite its massive success, the principles that made it a success still prove elusive to most software engineers today. We've stumbled into a world where so called REST APIs are less RESTful than GraphQL, where most definitions of hypermedia are wrong, and where nuance has been replaced with "well actually". In this episode, Kris is joined by Matt, Jamie, and Steve to discuss REST, hypermedia, the Web (now at version 4.0!), where all of these came from, and so much more.

For our long time listeners, you might remember hearing Kris and Matt discuss a potential after show. Well good news, they've finally recorded an episode! The first episode will be released in this feed, but subsequent episodes will have their own feed. You can listen to the episode by going to: https://break.show/ep/1.

The panel also discusses OpenAPI and how it relates to REST and hypermedia, but that chapter is for supporters only. Hear what the panel has to say about OpenAPI, along with other extended conversations, and higher quality audio! Get access by signing up at https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe.

Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!

Notes:

• Paper tigers and hidden dragons
• It is okay to use POST
• REST APIs must be hypertext-driven

Table of Contents:

• Prologue (01:28)
• Chapter 1: What even is hypermedia? (02:30)
• Chapter 2: What is REST? (09:48)
• Chapter 3: The Uniform Interface (22:57)
• Chapter 4: Cookies are terrible [Supporter Only] (01:02:53)
• Chapter 5: <video> and Web 4.0 (01:03:43)
• Chapter 6: OpenAPI [Supporter Only] (01:26:27)
• Chapter 7: An interlude and the future of the web [Supporter Only] (01:28:28)
• Epilogue (01:28:32)

Hosts

• Kris Brandow - Host
• Matthew Sanabria - Host
• Jamie Tanna - Host
• Steve Klabnik - Host

Socials:

• Website
• Bluesky
• Threads
• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

• (01:28) - Prologue
• (02:30) - Chapter 1: What even is hypermedia?
• (09:48) - Chapter 2: What is REST?
• (22:57) - Chapter 3: The Uniform Interface
• (01:02:53) - Chapter 4: Cookies are terrible [Supporter Only]
• (01:03:43) - Chapter 5: and Web 4.0
• (01:26:27) - Chapter 6: OpenAPI [Supporter Only]
• (01:28:28) - Chapter 7: An interlude and the future of the web [Supporter Only]
• (01:28:32) - Epilogue