The more I see and use REST, the more it seems to be a re-iteration of the ideas behind HTTP. There are many books that talk about REST - what about HTTP?
What's the best book on the ideas and technical details behind HTTP itself?
The development manager of a top 10 web commerce site told me last year: "Read Richardson and Ruby's book to learn about REST, anything else will just make you dumber!" -- and he was right. This book does cover a lot of HTTP, and from a perspective of how it was meant to be used.
Jim Ferrans
2009-06-03 05:37:12
+1
A:
I recommend reading the RFC specification documents. They are well written, and the books are usually just glosses on them.
(Sir) Tim Berners-Lee wrote the original RFC 1945 HTTP/1.0 document. Skip the more esoteric sections at first reading.
The protocol is now on version HTTP/1.1.
In the time it would take you to read a book, you can read the RFCs three or four times, about what it takes to get a good grasp of them. :-)
Greg
2009-06-04 05:41:28