The following documentation comment has been logged on the website: Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/datatype-json.html Description:
I'm wondering if this one line of section 8.14 JSON Types (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-json.html) can be edited to remove the word "legacy": "In general, most applications should prefer to store JSON data as jsonb, unless there are quite specialized needs, such as legacy assumptions about ordering of object keys." I'm concerned that with the word "legacy" there, someone might come along eventually and decide the json column type isn't needed anymore because it's "legacy", where in fact there are modern and legitimate uses for a field that allows you to retrieve the data exactly as it was stored and allows JSON queries on that data (even if they are slower). In my application, there's a database table to store encrypted and integrity-protected information. The ciphertext is in a binary data column, the ciphertext metadata is in a jsonb column, and integrity-protected plaintext is in a json column. The integrity protection is implemented as either the AD portion of AES-GCM AEAD or as a separately-computed HMAC; either way the bytes must be read exactly as they were stored or the integrity check will fail. Being able to select records based on the content of that plaintext json data is nice. An alternative would be to store the plaintext as binary data for the integrity check and have a separate jsonb column with a second copy of the same data. Since different applications have different time/space tradeoffs, it's good to have the choice. My suggestion for that sentence: "In general, most applications should prefer to store JSON data as jsonb, unless there are quite specialized needs, such as assumptions about ordering of object keys or the need to retrieve the data exactly as it was stored."
