rationale about json5 HOT 3 CLOSED

use BSON then, it's language-agnostic and fast to parse

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From the json.org website (emphasis mine).

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.

So you see, the purpose of JSON is not just that it is language agnostic and fast to parse, but that it is also easily readable and writable for humans. JSON5 is a bit of a trade-off—far easier for humans to manipulate, only marginally more complex for computers to manipulate. I think the benefits outweigh the cost.

I think its best feature is how well if follows the Principle of Least Astonishment. Things you can do in JavaScript tend to just work in JSON5.

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Agreed, thanks for the response guys. =)

@mcharytoniuk: to add on, I wouldn't say the things you mention are "ambiguities" in the literal sense. The grammar (thanks @jordanbtucker!) is still concretely well-defined, and JSON5 is still ultimately a language-agnostic data format. (It just happens to be inspired by and a subset of JS in the same way that JSON originally was.)

I can't speak to performance, because that's comparing apples to oranges right now. The implementation in this repo is an example one based on Douglas Crockford's original JSON implementation, but browsers and other platforms have native JSON parsers these days. One day I hope/expect we'll see a prototype of a native JSON5 parser; then we can compare performance. =)

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