JSON5
Languages and libraries
data format parser
SHOW HN2012
How HN took it
2 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 39 critical, out of 48 comments about the project. Thread score -0.68.
Idea: 1 for, 37 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Commenters defend the project against dismissive criticism
From 2 comments
I think that it's really a shame to see people slamming aseemk here. He had an idea, worked on it, and released it. That's fantastic. There are a few constructive comments here…
augustflanagan on HNYou know that something has gone very deeply wrong somewhere when people oppose your project because they are ideologically opposed to comments. In my own experience, finding out…
jimrandomh on HN
Objections
Should not be called JSON; breaks the fixed JSON standard
From 4 comments
Please, don't call it JSON. There is only one JSON, and you didn't make it. It's cool that you made this, and that you made it open source, just please call it something else.
Mizza on HNPlease don't call it JSON. Actually I don't care much, as your project will be shunned. The first rule of JSON is that JSON doesn't change.
benatkin on HNDouglas built the JSON spec 1) to be language agnostic. Following ES5's syntax directions is fine for ES5 focused development, possibly not for others. 2) to be final - i.e.…
brentashley on HNJSON is an amazing serialization format but hand-written JSON is completely wrong. I think this fixes most of the problems of using it in hand-written situations. Just the lack…
wvenable on HN
Hand-editing is an editor problem; comments and lax syntax hurt interoperability
From 3 comments
I won't begrudge someone a fun little personal project, however (almost) no-one will ever adopt this. It removes too many benefits of JSON/introduces drawbacks for very little…
YmMot on HNJSON is wonderful because it is simple and unambiguous. It just works, and serialized data will always look the same. This "JSON5" thing is an abomination. Use whatever quotes…
enneff on HNThree things: * Comments in JSON files are not a great idea because people might (will?) abuse them to add special instructions for their own serializers. As soon as this happens…
simanyay on HN
Existing JSON parsers would reject these documents
From 1 comment
Congratulations, you've made something which looks superficially like JSON, but most documents won't parse in 99.9% of JSON parsers. Interoperability is lost, nothing is gained!
MarkR42 on HN
Requests
Rename the project
From 3 comments
Please, don't call it JSON. There is only one JSON, and you didn't make it. It's cool that you made this, and that you made it open source, just please call it something else.
Mizza on HNPlease rename your project or take it down. People here gave you enough reasons.
tferris on HNI have to agree with most of the criticism in this thread. The lack of comments, strict quoting, no trailing slashes - these aren't problems to fix they are features. As others…
pygorex on HN
Build a compiler or CLI that converts to valid JSON
From 2 comments
Seems like you're getting a lot of criticism for this, a lot of which I have to agree with. Writing valid JSON is extremely simple and unfortunately it's hard to see how this…
genericdave on HNThat's npm, not node itself, that relies on package.json. When its creator chose it, he knew exactly what JSON is. He's maintained on HN and elsewhere that he made a good…
benatkin on HN
Questions
Why not use YAML instead?
From 2 comments
Can I ask why YAML wasn't good enough?
zacharyvoase on HNThis entirely misses the point of JSON. if you want these features it's perfectly acceptable to use YAML instead of JSON.
ZenPsycho on HN
Alternatives named
YAML
From 2 comments
I absolutely hate hand-writing JSON, but that's why I use YAML. I think you should push for a properly documented subset of YAML, or a full YAML parser in JavaScript instead.…
gurkendoktor on HNCan I ask why YAML wasn't good enough?
zacharyvoase on HN
JSON with comments or JSON3 parsers
From 2 comments
JSON 3 here: https://github.com/bestiejs/json3
cheeaun on HNYou know that something has gone very deeply wrong somewhere when people oppose your project because they are ideologically opposed to comments. In my own experience, finding out…
jimrandomh on HN
CoffeeScript, HAML and SASS style compile-to-JSON layers
From 1 comment
Douglas built the JSON spec 1) to be language agnostic. Following ES5's syntax directions is fine for ES5 focused development, possibly not for others. 2) to be final - i.e.…
brentashley on HN