it's sad that this is downvoted, since it's also true. For example, AWS emits its response as XML, and it's a chore for boto to convert that to a json response

it's sad that this is downvoted, since it's also true. For example, AWS emits its response as XML, and it's a chore for boto to convert that to a json response. If you don't want to use boto (say you're not in python) and you prefer getting the response in json, you might be out of luck.