One thing that I like about CBOR is that with very little knowledge it's surprisingly readable in a hex-dump. Low value positive integers are the value of the

One thing that I like about CBOR is that with very little knowledge it's surprisingly readable in a hex-dump. Low value positive integers are the value of the byte itself, strings all have the form "0x6L [string]" or "0x7X [len] [string]". Arrays and maps are similarly obvious. Of course, anything more than a simple construct you're better off using a decoder (e.g. a Wireshark one). Also, the fact that it's compatible with JSON means that you can use JSON in your development, and then switch to CBOR at the end for the reduction in packet size. In python it's as simple as changing: import json as encoder to import cbor as encoder