(www.tbray.org)

139 points robin_reala | 2 comments | 20 Aug 16 18:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.438s | source

Show context

greenyoda ◴[20 Aug 16 18:17 UTC] No.12327716[source]▶

I never understood why the double quotes around property names are mandatory. For example, in JavaScript, I can write

    { foo: 1, bar: 2 }

but JSON syntax insists on

    { "foo": 1, "bar": 2 }

This makes JSON less easily readable by humans, and harder to write or edit by hand.

Anyone know why JSON was designed this way?

1. shill ◴[20 Aug 16 18:46 UTC] No.12327829[source]▶

My assumption is that quotes are needed for keys with spaces.

    > x = {}
    > x["foo bar"] = 1
    > x
    { 'foo bar': 1 }

replies(1): >>12334340 #

2. Retra ◴[22 Aug 16 05:42 UTC] No.12334340[source]▶

That only explains why they are permitted, not why they are mandatory.

Fixing JSON