While I respect tbray we need to fix engineers that try to 'fix JSON', absolutely nothing is broken with JSON.
It is nearly a perfect spec for the role it plays. It has taken off because it is so simple. I am constantly amazed that something so simple keeps being jabbed at with more complexity by engineers.
The job of an engineer is to make things that are complex simple, JSON did just that. Make a new standard for your fixes and watch them spiral out of control like XML. Making a simple format that works is damn hard and JSON is a nearly flawless attempt. It is baked into the ecosystem so let's not break it. It was a response to XML complexity/verbosity for use in javascript first, it is so damn useful that it is used everywhere now, why? simplicity.
It is nearly a perfect spec for the role it plays. It has taken off because it is so simple. I am constantly amazed that something so simple keeps being jabbed at with more complexity by engineers.
The job of an engineer is to make things that are complex simple, JSON did just that. Make a new standard for your fixes and watch them spiral out of control like XML. Making a simple format that works is damn hard and JSON is a nearly flawless attempt. It is baked into the ecosystem so let's not break it. It was a response to XML complexity/verbosity for use in javascript first, it is so damn useful that it is used everywhere now, why? simplicity.
Everything you need can be done with current JSON. Dates in quotes or ticks (another key for offset if need be), comments in separate files (do you really want © Oracle or Microsoft in all your data files?), strong typing GTFO (use a schema if verbosity is needed -- it supports all needed base types string, numeric, list, object), and it is Javascript Object Notation so it's purpose was to tie to Javascript, don't even attempt to break it from Javascript. If you need more use YAML or XML or a new standard.
If you are trying to change JSON, back away slowly, go add your complexity for minimal or worse benefit elsewhere...