The State of RestSharp as of June 2010
On Releases
I know it’s very cliché of .NET open source projects to be perpetually unreleased but I’ve sort of come to like not having a release. In the current state of the project, there’s a minimum level of involvement in order to use RestSharp. Having a slightly higher bar for using it tends to limit use to 1) people that know how to report bugs 2) people more willing to contribute back and 3) people less likely to need a lot of help. These three things really make it a low-maintenance project, which is nice because sometimes I’m pretty busy.
I previously wanted to release fast and furious with quick updates after 1.0. Now, I’m taking my time to get 1.0 rounded out better. I’ve reprioritized oAuth (in progress), Silverlight (mostly done) and Windows Phone 7 support (not started) for 1.0.
However, you may not have to wait too much longer because of some things I can’t yet discuss that are giving me some more time to work on RestSharp. Stay tuned.
On Documentation
If you’ve previously checked out RestSharp then written it off because you couldn’t figure it out and there were no docs, I’ve written a lot of documentation since then. If you have a chance, read through it and let me know what’s missing.
On "Competition"
There are some other .NET REST Clients that have either recently launched or are somewhere around the corner. The most interesting development is Microsoft’s re-entry into the problem space with their upcoming REST updates to WCF being spearheaded by Glenn Block (of MEF fame). I’m honored to hear that the WCF team has evaluated RestSharp and best I can tell doesn’t hate it. I would love for a proper REST client (or even HTTP client) to be included in the framework and eliminate the need for RestSharp. I’ll be keeping an eye out for what they develop and rest assured if it doesn’t meet my standards, RestSharp isn’t going anywhere. If it does, then I’ll re-evaluate things then. Either way, I’m glad to see increased interest in REST from MS and other developers. The more the merrier!
On Pure REST vs. Mainstream REST
RestSharp is very much situated in the "Mainstream REST" (aka Web API) category. Almost to the point where I wish I hadn’t included ‘REST’ in the name. When I started I had no idea what a rabbit hole pure REST is. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just it’s more complicated than my original understanding. I am attempting to keep an ear to the REST purists to gain inspiration for how things should work. However, my #1 goal is to get things done and since most of the APIs I work with also fall into the mainstream REST category, that will continue to be my focus for RestSharp.
On Community
When I started this little project I never imagined that anyone else would like it, let alone use it, let alone contribute to it or write blog posts about it. For all of those people listed in the Acknowledgements and blog posts list, thank you for your support of RestSharp. We’re over 100 watchers+forks on GitHub and almost 150 followers on Twitter. RestSharp was even featured on the GitHub blog. Your contributions have made it a better library and an even more fun project to work on! Thank you everyone!