What exactly does REST mean? What is it, and why is it getting big now?

Question

I understand (I think) the basic idea behind RESTful-ness. Use HTTP methods semantically - GET gets, PUT puts, DELETE deletes, etc... Right? thought I understood

Answer 1

This is what REST might look like:

POST /user
fname=John&lname=Doe&age=25

The server responds:

201 Created
Location: /user/123

In the future, you can then retrieve the user information:

GET /user/123

The server responds (assuming an XML response):

200 OK
JohnDoe25

To update:

PUT /user/123
fname=Johnny