The Pretty JSON Revolution

Post by ucarion » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #102

Garlef wrote: post #56

> JSON can be made prettier by sorting the JSON object members by element keys. This seems to be a bad idea. The JSON language spec has ORDERED object members. But the order is arbitrary (precisely the one given in the JSON string) and does not have to be the lexicographic. Sorting the object members by default would introduce problems whenever the order matters to the consumer of the JSON.

> The JSON language spec has ORDERED object members. False. “An object is an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs, where a name is a string and a value is a string, number, boolean, null, object, or array.” [emphasis added][0] [0] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259

  An object whose names are all unique is interoperable in the sense that all
  software implementations receiving that object will agree on the name-value
  mappings.  When the names within an object are not unique, the behavior of
  software that receives such an object is unpredictable.  Many implementations
  report the last name/value pair only.  Other implementations report an error
  or fail to parse the object, and some implementations report all of the
  name/value pairs, including duplicates.
  
  JSON parsing libraries have been observed to differ as to whether or not they
  make the ordering of object members visible to calling software.
  Implementations whose behavior does not depend on member ordering will be
  interoperable in the sense that they will not be affected by these
  differences.

Post by fiddlerwoaroof » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 6:29 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #107

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JavaScript objects are ordered maps (as are PHP’s arrays, iirc): it’s not common, but relying on this is specified behavior in JavaScript: it would be a little surprising for JSON object literals to follow a different rule.

> JavaScript objects are ordered maps (as are PHP’s arrays, iirc): it’s not common, but relying on this is specified behavior in JavaScript: it would be a little surprising for JSON object literals to follow a different rule. JSON object literals expressly follow a different rule (are expliclty unordered) per the IETF specs and have no specific significance to order at the JSON level though some might conceivably be…

Post by mschuetz » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

Zecc wrote: post #89

augusto-moura wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The position of commas in the rgb array are triggering me Numbers to the right make it much more pleasant to my eyes { "colors": [ { "color": "black", "hex": "#000", "rgb": [ 0, 0, 0 ] }, { "color": "red", "hex": "#f00", "rgb": [ 255, 0, 0 ] }, { "color": "yellow", "hex": "#ff0", "rgb": [ 255, 255, 0 ] }, { "color": "green", "hex": "#0f0", "rgb": [ 0, 255, 0 ] }, { "color": "cyan", "hex": "#0ff", "rgb": [ 0, 255, 255…

> The position of commas in the rgb array are triggering me You mean: { "colors": [ { "color": "black" , "hex": "#000", "rgb": [ 0, 0, 0 ] }, { "color": "red" , "hex": "#f00", "rgb": [ 255, 0, 0 ] }, { "color": "yellow" , "hex": "#ff0", "rgb": [ 255, 255, 0 ] }, { "color": "green" , "hex": "#0f0", "rgb": [ 0, 255, 0 ] }, { "color": "cyan" , "hex": "#0ff", "rgb": [ 0, 255, 255 ] }, { "color": "blue" , "hex": "#00f", "…

    {
      "colors": [
        { "color": "black"  , "hex": "#000", "rgb": [   0,   0,   0 ] },
        { "color": "red"    , "hex": "#f00", "rgb": [ 255,   0,   0 ] },
        { "color": "yellow" , "hex": "#ff0", "rgb": [ 255, 255,   0 ] },
        { "color": "green"  , "hex": "#0f0", "rgb": [   0, 255,   0 ] },
        { "color": "cyan"   , "hex": "#0ff", "rgb": [   0, 255, 255 ] },
        { "color": "blue"   , "hex": "#00f", "rgb": [   0,   0, 255 ] },
        { "color": "magenta", "hex": "#f0f", "rgb": [ 255,   0, 255 ] },
        { "color": "white"  , "hex": "#fff", "rgb": [ 255, 255, 255 ] },
      ]
    }

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

ucarion wrote: post #111

dragonwriter wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The JSON language spec has ORDERED object members. False. “An object is an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs, where a name is a string and a value is a string, number, boolean, null, object, or array.” [emphasis added][0] [0] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259

Not exactly, unfortunately. The text you cite is in the introduction, which is non-normative. That text talks about the conceptual data model, but that's just to frame the reader's thinking. The normative text has the "real" answer, and the real answer is that it's basically undefined behavior. It starts by saying "The names within an object SHOULD be unique", and then elaborates: An object whose names are all unique…

Post by adwn » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

breck wrote: post #84

Relevant plug: if Pretty Notations interest you, then you should keep an eye on Tree Notation https://treenotation.org/ .