Re: [Json] Allow any JSON value at the top level

[R S <[e-mail]>]

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 12:46 PM, Markus Lanthaler
<[e-mail]>wrote:

>
>
> > Are there interoperability problems we should be aware of? In my
> > experience, this change doesn't matter to applications that can only
> > handle objects or arrays--they simply encounter an error immediately
> > after parsing rather than during it.
>
> Well, changing the {}s to <>s would also result in an error but that
> doesn't
> mean that it won't cause problems.
>

That would not be backward compatible.



> The most important thing for this WG is
> to preserve backwards-compatibility. Turning JSON parsers that are
> currently
> completely conformant obsolete and arguing that they would error clearly
> breaks backwards compatibility.
>


"In telecommunications and computing, a product or technology is backward
or downward compatible if it can work with input generated by an older
product or technology." <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_compatibility>

Arrays and Objects at the root will still work, obviously, so this proposal
can be said to be backward compatible.



> As someone else showed in a different
> thread, this would e.g. break Rail's default JSON parser.
>

How would it break that parser? My employer happens to operate a very large
Rails site with heavy JSON traffic. We use a popular open-source JSON gem.
It supports the primitive root values proposed here.

- Rob