like there is no impressionnist standard, RFC, you know that Monet (i don't know i'm just saying all those names) had to follow to have their paintings sort of classified as an impressionist painting and you know bla-bla-bla-bla-bla and standards bodies and all that junk we just have these things about a painting their caracteristics, that points towards a painting being an impressionist painting so it's the same sort of way with REST a description of a way of building software architectures that give you certain benefits at the risk of certain penalties if you can't give up those penalties, it doesn't make sense to use REST it makes sense to use other things if you want those benefits, it makes a great deal of sense to use REST that's what I mean when I say "architectural style" it's the fundamental thing to understand and that's one of the reasons it's the dual-edged sword just like the Web itself its openness is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness at the same time so, there's no, you can't like throw the standards book at someone's... 