"PATCH is a very simple method"
2010-03-01 @ 12:28#
Regarding PATCH Method for HTTP (RFC5789):
PATCH is a very simple method -- look at the content-type to see the format of the body, which contains instructions on how to apply a desired state change. The intent (when I added it back in 1995) was to define patch media types that contained a first section containing changes to metadata and then later sections containing the diffs. The decision on which patch media type to support would largely depend on the nature of the resource (and the ability of folks who wanted them to get off their duff and define the types). I started on a definition of a patch format for YAML late last year, but it was derailed by the partitioning work.
....Roy (March 2008)