Airtran???Newark not jfk.
Allen Jones
Director - Digital Library Programs
The New School Libraries
On May 13, 2010, at 2:00 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <rochk...@jhu.edu> wrote:
JSON and XML as structures have 'order' in exactly analagous ways.
In the case of Json, if you want to encode order you should use an
array, not a dictionary, of course. Whether the particular software
_parsing_ or _translating_ either Json or XML will go through it in
order and preserve the order when translating to another format...
is another question. Is there reason to think that software dealing
with Json will be more likely to do this wrong than software dealing
with xml? I don't get it.
Kyle Banerjee wrote:
Huh? JSON arrays preserve element order just like XML preserves
element
order. Combining JSON labeled arrays and objects provide you with
the
same mechanisms available in markup languages such as XML.
Maybe I'm getting mixed up but is it not unsafe to assume that
element order
will be preserved in all environments in for/foreach loops where
the JSON
might be interpreted unless you specifically iterate through
elements in
order? If I'm wrong, this is a total nonissue. Otherwise, there
could be
side effects.
Don't get me wrong. JSON's a better way to go in general, and I
think that
too much the focus on lossless preservation of the MARC record has
a really
held us back. Given that significant portions of the MARC record
are not
used for search, retrieval, or display, and many useful elements
consist of
free text, faithfully preserving each field as an object to encode
elements
such as extent of item or notes strikes me like using a chain saw
to cut
butter.
kyle
