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People were excited about JSON because there was a desperate need for a data format that wasn't overly complex and/or unsafe to parse. S-expressions just weren
by wmil 10y ago
People were excited about JSON because there was a desperate need for a data format that wasn't overly complex and/or unsafe to parse.
S-expressions just weren't up to snuff because there's no standard way to do key-value mapping.
- lisper 10y agoSigh. This is exactly the kind of lack of understanding that I'm talking about. > S-expressions just weren't up to snuff because there's no standard way to do key-value mapping. That's not true. There are two standard ways to do this: a-lists and p-lists.
- djur 10y ago"Two standards" isn't much different from "no standard" in this context. JSON was successful because it had a simple spec that almost anyone could implement for any language with virtually no ambiguity. It's not ubiquitous because it's good, it's good because it's ubiquitous. It's another episode in the long history of "worse-is-better".