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Why do client-directed messages work poorly with REST?
If there are any other helpful links on REST implementation, particularly working with legacy systems who are not already RESTful, that would be helpful for my start-up.
The reason is simple: REST forbids a server being aware of client state. So practically, this means sessions are off limits; cookies for managing sessions are meaningless in such a world.
To send an event to a client, though, means the server must have some sort of awareness of the client. Otherwise, it wouldn't know to send the client a message in the first place.
So, can you have events in conjunction with REST? Sure. Just realize once you do that, your application isn't 100% RESTful. It's RESTful and... RESTless I guess :)
