# Totally naive - what is meant by REST?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/totally-naive-what-is-meant-by-rest/105126>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 25, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/totally-naive-what-is-meant-by-rest/105126 "2007-05-25T23:58:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![richinri](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/f19dbf/32.png) [@richinri](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richinri)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/totally-naive-what-is-meant-by-rest/105126/1 "2007-05-25T23:58:53Z")

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I see this acronym a lot - what does REST stand for?

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**Author:** ![richinri](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/f19dbf/32.png) [@richinri](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/richinri)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/totally-naive-what-is-meant-by-rest/105126/2 "2007-05-26T00:21:56Z")

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> **[Representational state transfer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST)**
>
> Representational state transfer (REST) is a software architectural style that was created to guide the design and development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of an Internet-scale distributed hypermedia system, such as the Web, should behave. The REST architectural style emphasises the scalability of interactions between components, uniform interfaces, independent deployment of components, and the creation of a layered architec...