Re: [Json] Limitations on number size?

[Stefan Drees <[e-mail]>]

On 04.06.13 09:59, Nico Williams wrote:
> On Tuesday, June 4, 2013, Carsten Bormann wrote:
>
>      >>> JavaScript might not, but JSON actually does have indefinite
>     length bignums. A JSON number can have any number of decimal digits.
>      >>
>      >> Yeah, but it is constrained to IEEE 754 64-bit floating point
>     values, no?
>      >
>      > I don't see any limitation in RFC 4627, but it would be
>     interesting if other folks here believe there is a limitation as
>     Nico does.
>
>     I think this is a nice example of the distinction between JSON the
>     representation format, a specific JSON application, and JSON the
>     ecosystem.
>
>     JSON the format has no trouble in representing high-precision
>     numbers (and big integers).
>     So if somebody wanted to send ECDSA signature r/s values as JSON
>     numbers, the format would be fine.
>
>
> This is a plausible answer, sure.  I'm not sure I'd want to say JSON can
> only represent IEEE754 64-bit numbers either, so if this is the
> consensus then that'll be fine by me.
>
> Do note that JSON's number encoding is indefinite-length...  ;) ...

In the wild - and in my little eco system at least - JSON is used more 
like ONS (Object Notation Serialization), isn't it?

I regard the "indefinite-length stream of digits to be interpreted as a 
number" as a small price for the unversal usability and acceptance of 
JSON as a format.

In conclusion such a change should IMO a) not qualify as a change being 
covered by the charter of the WG and would b) break several interesting 
use cases, where implementers would then be forced to put potentially(!) 
non IEEE754 64-bit number literals always into quotes instead of as now 
happily producing and consuming "streams" of say:

{/*...*/ "foo": [1.1, 0.2, 1234567890123456789012345678.9, 0.0 //...


All the best,

Stefan.