[icebraining]

But if you are trying to argue that REST is better than competing technologies, the question is: what objective benefits does it offer, compared to those other technologies?

REST isn't a technology, it's an architectural style. Regarding its benefits, they are all well specified in Fielding's thesis. REST is composed of a few constraints, and abiding by each one gives you certain benefits.

That said, I agree with you vis-à-vis the need to avoid blinders. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with using RPC if that's the most adequate solution. What bothers me are all those new RPC-over-HTTP which people insist on calling RESTful.

[_pmf_]

> abiding by each one gives you certain benefits

And drawbacks.

[icebraining]

It's a constraint, I think that's implicit in the term itself.