Re: [Json] Limitations on number size?

Yeah, we can’t retroactively change the 4627 production for number, nor, in
the -bis, say very much useful aside from a caution that implementations
are all over the map.  When we move on to the BCP or Internet JSON or
whatever, I think the single most interesting discussion will be how to
constrain numeric values for maximum interoperability.

-T

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> wrote:

> >  JSON numbers are ECMAScript numbers
>
> That's a common misconception.
>
> JSON numbers are what they are (see the production "number" in RFC 4627).
> JSON numbers obviously are decimal, ECMAScript numbers are binary.
>
> The text then goes on to say "The representation of numbers is similar to
> that used in most programming languages."; most programming languages
> distinguish 0 and 0.0 very heavily, and almost all modern ones have more
> than 53 bits of precision in numbers, but most programming languages also
> use binary numbers for the semantics of that decimal representation.
>
> When generating JSON for high levels of interoperability, you wouldn't
> want to rely on the recipient distinguishing 0 from 0.0, or more generally
> on distinguishing two numbers that differ but map to the same IEEE 754
> double precision number.  Some user communities have done the latter*) and
> I know a lot of parsers that do the former.
>
> > ECMAScript numbers are IEEE floating point doubles (minus some odd bits).
>
> Indeed.
>
> > I was astonished to find out that some people disagree, apparently to
> the point that they believe that 0 is different from .0
>
> .0 is not a JSON number, but 0.0 is.
> Whether that is different from 0 is up to the data model (RFC 4627 is mute
> about that, and I have reason to believe that is intentional); in
> interoperable JSON, it would be foolish to rely on them being different
> (but it is less clear to me how foolish it would be to rely on them not
> being different), in JSON syntax, they clearly are different.
>
> Grüße, Carsten
>
> *) https://dev.twitter.com/docs/twitter-ids-json-and-snowflake
>
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