Re: REST and DELETE?

Mike Kelly wrote:
>
> >
> > It has to contain all the state if you want the message to reflect
> > the intent of the user, yes.  That message is not self-descriptive.
> 
> I don't think it's correct to characterise self-descriptiveness in
> boolean terms.
>

Either a message is self-descriptive, allowing for intermediary
processing, or it isn't.  There are no "degrees" here, however much you
may want there to be to legitimize your redefinition of terms like self-
descriptive, or visible.

>
> There's a whole continuum of self-descriptiveness, and
> some parts of an interaction do not necessarily need visibility. For
> example, if my API requires clients to include headers for their
> star-sign...
>

All parts of a RESTful system require self-descriptive messaging, it's
a constraint.  Any application-specific headers that intermediaries
have no need to consider to determine how to process a message, have no
bearing on self-descriptiveness.  They may make your system self-
describing, which I think you get confused with self-descriptive, but
they certainly don't make it "more self-descriptive" by any stretch.

-Eric