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Sure, but why JSON? :) What happens when a new format comes along that is better, more efficient, or whatever? Would all tools then need to be updated to suppor

by imiric 3y ago

Sure, but why JSON? :) What happens when a new format comes along that is better, more efficient, or whatever? Would all tools then need to be updated to support it? What if a change in the format is introduced? Would all tools need to be updated, and have to maintain backwards compatibility indefinitely? This would be an even bigger UX problem, while also adding much more maintenance work for tool developers. It might seem like unstructured text as an exchange format is a usability nuisance, but it is what makes independent and disparate tools work well together. Choosing a strict contract is only sustainable if a single project maintains all tools, and even then it's a huge maintenance effort.

hermanradtke 3y ago
> Would all tools then need to be updated to support it? The effort to translate JSON to another structured data format is orders of magnitude easier than converting the unstructured mess we have now into JSON. So, it does not matter if we choose JSON, XML, TOML, etc. Once we get structured data, then things progress quickly. The nice thing about JSON at this moment is that it is a very common and easy to use format.
pmarreck 3y ago
> Choosing a strict contract is only sustainable if a single project maintains all tools You're obviously not working in the web space, where literally hundreds of thousands of sites have somehow successfully standardized on interoperating via JSON input/output for their HTTP API endpoints despite using many, many different technology stacks, over the last 10 years or so. It isn't perfect, but it's easy to use and common and the tooling is mature.
mongol 3y ago
JSON seems to have established itself for this to a large extent already. I can imagine a binary format like MsgPack to work well for this too but I think JSON is good enough and popular enough that it could actually be embraced widely.

by imiric 3y ago

hermanradtke 3y ago

> Would all tools then need to be updated to support it? The effort to translate JSON to another structured data format is orders of magnitude easier than converting the unstructured mess we have now into JSON. So, it does not matter if we choose JSON, XML, TOML, etc. Once we get structured data, then things progress quickly. The nice thing about JSON at this moment is that it is a very common and easy to use format.

pmarreck 3y ago

> Choosing a strict contract is only sustainable if a single project maintains all tools You're obviously not working in the web space, where literally hundreds of thousands of sites have somehow successfully standardized on interoperating via JSON input/output for their HTTP API endpoints despite using many, many different technology stacks, over the last 10 years or so. It isn't perfect, but it's easy to use and common and the tooling is mature.

mongol 3y ago

JSON seems to have established itself for this to a large extent already. I can imagine a binary format like MsgPack to work well for this too but I think JSON is good enough and popular enough that it could actually be embraced widely.