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Comment by etjossem | Hacker News Reader

  "human readable JSON like format"
  "JSON style human semi-readable form"
  > accidentally mentions JSON twice in the list

JSON is the most widely used serialization protocol in web application development today. The article's repeated mention of it is no accident at all: it's considered best practice across the industry. Frankly, I don't know why we are still talking about this.

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The "semi" in semi-readable is no mistake either. The lack of comments is a real drawback in JSON for human readability. It's a major reason why YAML is used as a substitute in complex cases (An AWS Cloudformation template might be a good example- they're all gone YAML).

Similarly, JSON still has ambiguity around encoding (type of UTF). Dates are the same. Even integers, which are limited to JavaScript's 53-bit implementation (all numbers in JavaScript are doubles, so you're stuck with the mantissa limit). This is a huge pain if you're dealing with 64-bit values.

UTF-8 and JSON is a good place to start for Web Development, but there is no way it's the final or only answer.

> integers, which are limited to JavaScript's 53-bit implementation

According to what? JSON just says that a number is a series of digits.

...maybe because JSON is one of the worst serialization "protocols" in common use?

If you ever need an argument for why "worse is better" actually rules the world of software, point to JSON and drop your mic.

Convince me.

The JSON standard is completely silent on date types, for example.

I'm not doing your homework for you.

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