The point is not so much that the browser itself swallows the software, as that browsers become the standard bearer for those domains. For a compiler-related e

The point is not so much that the browser itself swallows the software, as that browsers become the standard bearer for those domains. For a compiler-related example, Rust's cargo build tool (the interface that most developers use to the rustc compiler) interoperates with other tools by outputting JSON: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/external-tools.htm... Another example that's more of a standard is the Language Server Protocol, which is JSON over HTTP even though it doesn't (always) touch a browser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol