4 ms·

Putting type sigils on object keys does not solve the problem of typing arrays, unless the types of array array elements are always homogenous, disallowed as th

by bascule 10y ago

Putting type sigils on object keys does not solve the problem of typing arrays, unless the types of array array elements are always homogenous, disallowed as the root symbol (they are presently allowed), and are always typed by their membership in an object (and therefore by the key referring to them). This also does not solve the problem of how to type multidimensional arrays. The question of homogenous types for non-scalars is still an open issue, and is probably the best place to further discuss this: https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 As an aesthetic note: I personally find "$" visually noisy as a sigil, and think it has generally lost favor as a sigil for commonly used expressions in programming languages, but is probably familiar to users of Perl, PHP, bash, and BASIC

snarf21 10y ago
Array is a more complex issue. The biggest issue is whether it can break existing parsers or not. Additionally, the extra typing for things like heterogeneous or nested arrays will require application code that understands the typing instead of leaving that up to the parser. I think the simplest rule for now would be to only allow homogeneous arrays. This is quite an interesting problem. (Other suggestions to send along a JSONSchema seem unrealistic and the beauty of JSON is its simplicity and brevity, nobody wants another XML) { homog1$ai : [2, 3, 4] } { homog2$as : ["a", "b", "c"] } I don't love $ but _ is so much more likely to be used in a key name for clarity like first_name. I also doubt that many people end their keys with $type so there is unlikely to be a conflict. If they do, it is probably a code standard they are using internally anyway for a similar purpose. Personally, I think that things like jQuery, etc. have trained people to see $ as a marker for "identifier" that I think it feels pretty natural, at least at this point. Again, just my $0.02 and you're mileage may vary....
- bascule 10y ago
  Please see this issue for homogenous typing of arrays: https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 Also based on the feedback I've received, I'm putting together a full proposal for moving all type information to object keys, and fully typing all non-scalars (and nested non-scalars) in a way that will be friendlier to statically typed languages. That said, I don't think the "$" thing is going to happen.
  - bascule 10y ago
    I've made a concrete proposal for moving type signatures exclusively to a postfix tag on object keys here: https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/30 https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/30

by bascule 10y ago

snarf21 10y ago

Array is a more complex issue. The biggest issue is whether it can break existing parsers or not. Additionally, the extra typing for things like heterogeneous or nested arrays will require application code that understands the typing instead of leaving that up to the parser. I think the simplest rule for now would be to only allow homogeneous arrays. This is quite an interesting problem. (Other suggestions to send along a JSONSchema seem unrealistic and the beauty of JSON is its simplicity and brevity, nobody wants another XML) { homog1$ai : [2, 3, 4] } { homog2$as : ["a", "b", "c"] } I don't love $ but _ is so much more likely to be used in a key name for clarity like first_name. I also doubt that many people end their keys with $type so there is unlikely to be a conflict. If they do, it is probably a code standard they are using internally anyway for a similar purpose. Personally, I think that things like jQuery, etc. have trained people to see $ as a marker for "identifier" that I think it feels pretty natural, at least at this point. Again, just my $0.02 and you're mileage may vary....

bascule 10y ago
Please see this issue for homogenous typing of arrays: https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/23 Also based on the feedback I've received, I'm putting together a full proposal for moving all type information to object keys, and fully typing all non-scalars (and nested non-scalars) in a way that will be friendlier to statically typed languages. That said, I don't think the "$" thing is going to happen.
- bascule 10y ago
  I've made a concrete proposal for moving type signatures exclusively to a postfix tag on object keys here: https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/30 https://github.com/tjson/tjson-spec/issues/30