Re: [Json] Limitations on number size?

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

On Jun 4, 2013, at 16:07, Paul Hoffman <[e-mail]> wrote:

> And this is the point where one of the chairs says "please suggest specific wording changes to RFC 4627".

I like Tim's idea of a separate "best practices" document and look
forward to the process of creating it (Popcorn!).  However, some
things need to be said in the specification.  Here's my take:

<NEW>
Relationship between JSON and JavaScript

As the name implies, JSON was defined using the literal notation the
JavaScript language uses for its data objects; some restrictions were
made to make it more robust to potential changes in the JavaScript
language.  With that derivation made, JSON is now a specification
separate from JavaScript.

Properties of JavaScript (and changes to the JavaScript specification
[ECMAscript]) do not automatically transfer to JSON.  For example,
considerations about the source character set for JavaScript programs
do not influence what is admissible in a JSON document.  Another
example is the number format: JSON can represent numbers in arbitrary
precision by just supplying the necessary number of decimal digits.
JavaScript uses a number model derived from IEEE 754 binary double
precision numbers; the precision and range it can represent natively
therefore is a subset of the precision and range possible in JSON.

This clear separation of the two specifications does not mean that
users of JSON can always ignore JavaScript properties: A sizable part
of the JSON ecosystem is either using JavaScript implementations or
implementations that have been optimized for interaction with
JavaScript implementations.  Depending on the area of application, a
JSON-based protocol may do well to consider JavaScript's specific
properties.  Discussion of best practices for JSON-based protocols is
outside the scope of this specification.  Here, we just want to point
out that, for example, exclusively using numbers natively
representable in JavaScript is not a requirement of the JSON format.

Grüße, Carsten