All those gripes are optional features. Your parser or encoder does not need to support indefinite arrays, that feature is clearly designed to be used with som

All those gripes are optional features. Your parser or encoder does not need to support indefinite arrays, that feature is clearly designed to be used with some practical limitations like “I don’t know how many but let’s assume less than x, and I’ll send a STOP when I’m done”. Canonical ordering is optional. Yes, a typed system that has more types, IDK what to say about that other than you don’t have to use them. And yes, tags need to be supported on both ends, just like ANY DATA that is being transferred, compare to a strict schema’ed system and I no difference except that you’re only partially required to adhere to the plan. Maybe msgpack is just objectively better because it has less features. IDK. Doesn’t matter because CBOR got an RFC and is actually popping up in places. If there was a competition, cbor won, right or wrong.