I'm not claiming that REST is a protocol. I'm saying that the de facto state of the REST paradigm today is analogous to some protocols which have been twisted to support use-cases far beyond what their designers intended, in ways that make purists squeamish, but make developers happy that their shit works.
> use-cases far beyond what their designers intended
OK, I get what you're saying. Problem is that as far as I can see REST is perfect for S3-like services, Maps(?) and slightly more than basic CRUD applications.
You are bound to discover its limits very soon. The gazillions of books and blogposts out there heralding it as a serious interface are not helping either.
BTW, I don't know about other people criticizing, I am definitely not a purist. But after ~10 years of dealing with REST in various capacities(startups to Enterprises), I am a bit tired and can't wait for something to replace it.
How many browsers do you have? 3-5?
How many REST client libraries are there?
Answer: one per service(per programming language).
What kind of protocol is that?