Sample JSON input files not compatible with Python's json.tool

[Kaljurand]

A recommended way of pretty-printing JSON files is Python's json.tool (see e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/352098/how-can-i-pretty-print-json). The JSON files included as examples of input formats are not compatible with this tool.

$ python --version
Python 2.7.6
$ cat apps/cmdline/project/vc2010/etana/test.json | python -mjson.tool
Expecting property name: line 2 column 2 (char 4)

[PRR24]

Probably the tool expects key names to be quoted, smth that is considered generally optional.

I guess the important part is that output files generated by the programs are compatible with the tools (keys are quoted). Programs accept input files with both quoted and unquoted keys.

[kristiank]

The JSON standard does not consider quotes to be optional, in fact, they need to be there! Quoting from the ECMA-404 The JSON Data Interchange Standard (http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf):

A JSON value can be an object, array, number, string, true, false, or null. An object structure is represented as a pair of curly bracket tokens surrounding zero or more name/value pairs. A name is a string. A string is a sequence of Unicode code points wrapped with quotation marks (U+0022).

Thus, the only tokens not needed to be enclosed with quotation marks are numbers and the tokens true, false and null. Arrays need to be enclosed with [ ] marks.

Please don't keep closing the Issue threads before solving them!

[PRR24]

Yesterday, I closed an issue briefly before pushing the fix. I learned my lesson, today I did it in right order, so it would have been nice if you had checked it before commenting..

[kristiank]

I don't see that silently accepting non-quoted strings in input is conforming to the standard. So the test files were not generated by the program? If the output is always conformant, it's good.

When merging a pull request, you can add either: closes #IssueNumber or fixes #IssueNumber To make the fixing/closing of the issue more visible.

[PRR24]

Yes, test files are for program input, not its output. So, as:

• most of commonly used software today, including all the browsers I am aware of, accept json with and without quoted keys;
• cmdline tools do not require unquoted keys, just accept it;
• sample files were adjusted to be standard json compliant;
• the goal of the project is morphological engine, not json processor

I would prefer not to continue with this thread :)

[kristiank]

Fine. Great that output is truly standards compliant.