I like Jersey (and the standard API it implements: JAX-RS) a lot on its own (as compared to using a larger framework like Spring). However it can be difficult t

I like Jersey (and the standard API it implements: JAX-RS) a lot on its own (as compared to using a larger framework like Spring). However it can be difficult to program imperatively. You'd expect in a compiled language like Java you'd figure out most of your bugs during the type-checker pass. But there's so much implicit structure, class loading, and annotations that make Jersey apps mostly dynamically typed. You've got to compile and then hit every API endpoint/middleware to know it's registered at all. Even when you find the explicit APIs they are cumbersome to use, requiring many lines of code for something that should be simple like imperatively registering a route. I put together my own notes on using Jersey, JOOQ (an ORM), and PostgreSQL a month ago. My aim was to be as explicit as possible (though I did still have to fall back on class loading a few times). [0] [0] http://notes.eatonphil.com/a-minimal-rest-api-in-java.html http://notes.eatonphil.com/a-minimal-rest-api-in-java.html