UWS as a REST protocol

[Matthew Graham]

Hi,
> As a counter example, if we have an access reference such as
>
>     http://webtest.aoc.nrao.edu/ivoa-dal/JhuProxySsap?
>     REQUEST=getData&FORMAT=votable&PubDID=ivo%3A%2F%2Fjhu%2Fsdss...
>
> Then I suggest this is probably about as RESTful as most URLs which
> reference static files (so long as the dataset identifier is persistent).
>
> The main point of REST appears to be simplicity, elegance, and reuse of
> standard protocols and infrastructure.
>   
The main point of REST is having resources which can be accessed through 
a standard CRUD interface that maps onto the HTTP methods:

CREATE = POST
RETRIEVE = GET
UPDATE = PUT
DELETE = DELETE

Something like: 
http://somewhere.com/SomeProxy?REQUEST=delete&filename=mytable
is not RESTful since you're using an HTTP GET method to delete a 
resource. REST is by nature resource-oriented (hence the need for 
everything to be addressable by a URI) and not service-oriented like 
most CGI (HTTP GET) scripts and SOAP.

    Cheers,

    Matthew