4 ms·
REST is a broad term - there's nothing to stop REST apis from doing all those things with HATEOAS, discoverable apis, json schemas, etc. The real advantage of G
by micimize 8y ago
REST is a broad term - there's nothing to stop REST apis from doing all those things with HATEOAS, discoverable apis, json schemas, etc. The real advantage of GraphQL is the distillation and combination of preexisting ideas into a coherent spec and toolchain with a mainstream advocate, rather than a loose collection of standards, conventions, and libs with no mainstream advocacy.
To be fair, I feel like this fact means GraphQL does sit at a higher level of abstraction than "vanilla REST", which does make them not-so-comparable.
- geezerjay 8y ago> REST is a broad term - there's nothing to stop REST apis from doing all those things with HATEOAS, discoverable apis, json schemas, etc. This fact should be emphasized. REST is just an architectural style, and it's absurd to claim that an architectural style bars developers from implementing specific functionalities. It's even more absurd to compare a very specific implementation of a specific interface with an architectural style used to design and implement interfaces. It seems to me that this whole GraphQL vs REST debate has absolutely nothing to do with REST or even HTTP APIs, and is actually a discussion about how reusing a ready-made solution developed by third-parties has some advantages over having to roll your own.