Re: [JSON] PROPOSAL: Syntax structure should be object-based

On 03/16/2011 12:48 PM, Steve Harris wrote:
>> I would strike "JSON developer" and use the word "Web developer" 
>> instead. Every Web developer that has had to interface with other 
>> Web-based systems has used JSON at some point. Every JavaScript 
>> developer is familiar with the syntax. In other words, I don't
>> think there is such a thing as the "JSON developer community" (even
>> though I may slip and use the terminology from time to time).
> 
> That is not really accurate in my experience.
> 
> We work with financial services companies a lot, and many web
> developers there have never used JSON. In the "enterprise" world it's
> not really on the radar. Many of them even still use/prefer SOAP.

I started to get into "No True Scotsman" territory in my initial
response. "Well, those web developers aren't True Web Developers!" :P

Rather than go there, let me rephrase "Every Web developer" to "A large
majority of Web developers that are setting the trendline for the
industry". I'm thinking of the folks that use jQuery as a standard
library when putting together a website - 43% of the top 10,000 websites
now use jQuery:

http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/JQuery

I think this is a good statistic to use because you end up using many
JSON-like objects to configure bits and pieces of jQuery, like the
$.ajax() call:

http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/#jQuery-ajax-settings

As you point out - I'm sure there are communities that are lagging,
especially in industries that are not at the forefront of web
development. For example, we have a number of military companies that we
do contracting work for that are having a hard time upgrading their
browsers from IE6 to anything other than IE7. That doesn't mean that we
should base forward looking specifications on that behavior. :)

We should be looking at the trend... and I think jQuery adoption is a
good trend-line on which to base decisions on the types of data
structures developers are using now and into the next 3-4 years.

Here's an amusing statistic - more people use Google search to look for
stuff about "jQuery" than they do for "soap". No, not just SOAP the
protocol, SOAP the protocol /and/ the thing many people use to bathe
every single day /and/ soap operas:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=jquery,+html5,+json,+soap&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

-- manu

PS: Also, bathing is more popular in the summer than it is in the
fall... and the trend-line seems to suggest that people are becoming
less concerned about soap (perhaps bathing and soap?):

http://www.google.com/trends?q=soap,+bathing&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny)
President/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: Towards Universal Web Commerce
http://digitalbazaar.com/2011/01/31/web-commerce/

Received on Thursday, 17 March 2011 01:25:24 UTC