基于REST的服务称为“REST式服务”。

来源:多布斯博士档案

REST stands for representational state transfer. That means that state itself is not transferred but a mere representation of it is. The most common example is a pure HTML server based app (no javascript). The browser knows nothing about the application itself but through links and resources, the server is able transfer the state of the application to the browser. Where a button would normally change a state variable (e.g. page open) in a regular windows application, in the browser you have a link that represents such a state change.

这个想法就是使用超媒体。也许还能创造出新的超媒体类型。我们可以用javascript/AJAX扩展浏览器，并创建新的自定义超媒体类型。这样我们就有了一个真正的REST应用程序。

This is my short version of what REST stands for, the problem is that it is hard to implement. I personally say RESTful, when I want to make reference to the REST principles but I know I am not really implementing the whole concept of REST. We don't really say SOAPful, because you either use SOAP or not. I think most people don't do REST the way it was envisioned by it's creator Roy Fielding, we actually implement RESTful or RESTlike architectures. You can see his dissertation, and you will find the REST acronym but not the word RESTful.

具象状态传输(Representational State Transfer, REST)是一种用于分布式超媒体系统(如万维网)的软件体系结构风格。2000年，罗伊·菲尔丁(Roy Fielding1[2])在他的博士论文中引入并定义了“具象状态转移”(Representational State Transfer)一词。Fielding是超文本传输协议(HTTP)规范1.0和1.1版本的主要作者之一。 遵循REST约束被称为“RESTful”。资料来源:维基百科

REST是一种用于分布式软件的软件体系结构

遵循REST约束被称为“RESTful”。

如今，它被广泛用于构建web服务，作为SOAP的替代方案。

这里有一些链接需要检查

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/297424/Representational_State_Transfer_REST_ http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-restful/

REST是用于创建web服务的体系结构模式。RESTful服务就是实现该模式的服务。

正如Jason在评论中所说，RESTful只是作为一个形容词，用来描述尊重REST约束的东西。