[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/JSON-XS/XS.pm

Comparing JSON-XS/XS.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.79 by root, Wed Dec 19 11:42:52 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.96 by root, Wed Mar 26 01:40:42 2008 UTC

…		…
1	=head1 NAME	1	=head1 NAME
		2
		3	=encoding utf-8
2		4
3	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast	5	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4		6
5	JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ	7	JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
6	(http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)	8	(http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
58		60
59	=over 4	61	=over 4
60		62
61	=item * correct Unicode handling	63	=item * correct Unicode handling
62		64
63	This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when	65	This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
64	it does so.	66	so, and even documents what "correct" means.
65		67
66	=item * round-trip integrity	68	=item * round-trip integrity
67		69
68	When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported	70	When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported
69	by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level.	71	by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level.
70	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks	72	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks
71	like a number).	73	like a number). There minor I<are> exceptions to this, read the MAPPING
		74	section below to learn about those.
72		75
73	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness	76	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
74		77
75	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,	78	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
76	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security	79	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
77	feature).	80	feature).
78		81
79	=item * fast	82	=item * fast
80		83
81	Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms	84	Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
82	of speed, too.	85	this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
83		86
84	=item * simple to use	87	=item * simple to use
85		88
86	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO	89	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an objetc
87	interface.	90	oriented interface interface.
88		91
89	=item * reasonably versatile output formats	92	=item * reasonably versatile output formats
90		93
91	You can choose between the most compact guaranteed single-line format	94	You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
92	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format	95	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format
93	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole	96	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
94	Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that	97	Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
95	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.	98	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
96		99
…		…
100		103
101	package JSON::XS;	104	package JSON::XS;
102		105
103	use strict;	106	use strict;
104		107
105	our $VERSION = '2.01';	108	our $VERSION = '2.1';
106	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);	109	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
107		110
108	our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json to_json from_json);	111	our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json to_json from_json);
109		112
110	sub to_json($) {	113	sub to_json($) {
…		…
174	This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a	177	This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
175	Perl string - very natural.	178	Perl string - very natural.
176		179
177	=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.	180	=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
178		181
179	Unless you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or printing	182	... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
180	the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your string as	183	printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
181	locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending on various	184	string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
182	settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your data, it is	185	on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
183	I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical metadata.	186	data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
184		187
185	=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the	188	=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
186	encoding of your string.	189	encoding of your string.
187		190
188	Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in	191	Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
…		…
242		245
243	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode	246	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
244	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results	247	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
245	in a faster and more compact format.	248	in a faster and more compact format.
246		249
		250	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		251	document.
		252
247	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be	253	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
248	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not	254	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
249	contain any 8 bit characters.	255	contain any 8 bit characters.
250		256
251	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])	257	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
…		…
262	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default	268	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
263	expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.	269	expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
264		270
265	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode	271	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
266	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.	272	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
		273
		274	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		275	document.
267		276
268	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON	277	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
269	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded	278	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
270	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded	279	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
271	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and	280	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
…		…
290		299
291	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON	300	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
292	string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a	301	string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
293	Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs	302	Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
294	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.	303	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
		304
		305	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		306	document.
295		307
296	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:	308	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
297		309
298	use Encode;	310	use Encode;
299	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);	311	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
…		…
669	=> ([], 3)	681	=> ([], 3)
670		682
671	=back	683	=back
672		684
673		685
		686	=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
		687
		688	[This section is still EXPERIMENTAL]
		689
		690	In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
		691	texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
		692	Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
		693	JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
		694	a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
		695	using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but is
		696	much more efficient (JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text
		697	once it is sure it has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very
		698	simple but truly incremental parser).
		699
		700	The following two methods deal with this.
		701
		702	=over 4
		703
		704	=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
		705
		706	This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
		707	extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
		708	functions are optional).
		709
		710	If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
		711	existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
		712
		713	After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
		714	return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
		715	in as many chunks as you want.
		716
		717	If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
		718	exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
		719	object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
		720	this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
		721	C<incr_skip> to skip the errornous part). This is the most common way of
		722	using the method.
		723
		724	And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
		725	from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
		726	otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
		727	objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
		728	an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
		729	case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
		730	lost.
		731
		732	If there is a parse
		733
		734	=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
		735
		736	This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
		737	is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
		738	C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
		739	all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
		740	although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
		741	real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
		742	method before having parsed anything.
		743
		744	This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
		745	JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
		746	(such as commas).
		747
		748	=back
		749
		750	=head2 LIMITATIONS
		751
		752	All options that affect decoding are supported, except
		753	C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to
		754	work sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can concatenate
		755	them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does not hold true
		756	for JSON numbers, however.
		757
		758	For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
		759	start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
		760	of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
		761	takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
		762
		763	=head2 EXAMPLES
		764
		765	Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
		766	works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
		767	the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
		768
		769	my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
		770
		771	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		772
		773	my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
		774	or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
		775
		776	my $tail = $json->incr_text;
		777	# $tail now contains " hello"
		778
		779	Easy, isn't it?
		780
		781	Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
		782	you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
		783	array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
		784	use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
		785	the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
		786	with C<telnet>...).
		787
		788	Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
		789	manner):
		790
		791	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		792
		793	# read some data from the socket
		794	while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
		795
		796	# split and decode as many requests as possible
		797	for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
		798	# act on the $request
		799	}
		800	}
		801
		802	Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
		803	or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
		804	[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
		805	and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
		806
		807	my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
		808	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		809
		810	# void context, so no parsing done
		811	$json->incr_parse ($text);
		812
		813	# now extract as many objects as possible. note the
		814	# use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
		815	while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		816	# do something with $obj
		817
		818	# now skip the optional comma
		819	$json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
		820	}
		821
		822	Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
		823	JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
		824	but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
		825	the real world :).
		826
		827	Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
		828	can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
		829	JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
		830	own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
		831	example):
		832
		833	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		834
		835	# open the monster
		836	open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
		837	or die "bigfile: $!";
		838
		839	# first parse the initial "["
		840	for (;;) {
		841	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		842	or die "read error: $!";
		843	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		844
		845	# Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
		846	# In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
		847	# we append data to.
		848	last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
		849	}
		850
		851	# now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
		852	# parsing all the elements.
		853	for (;;) {
		854	# in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
		855	for (;;) {
		856	if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		857	# do something with $obj
		858	last;
		859	}
		860
		861	# add more data
		862	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		863	or die "read error: $!";
		864	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		865	}
		866
		867	# in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
		868	# separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
		869	for (;;) {
		870	# first skip whitespace
		871	$json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
		872
		873	# if we find "]", we are done
		874	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
		875	print "finished.\n";
		876	exit;
		877	}
		878
		879	# if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
		880	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
		881	last;
		882	}
		883
		884	# if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
		885	if (length $json->incr_text) {
		886	die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
		887	}
		888
		889	# else add more data
		890	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		891	or die "read error: $!";
		892	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		893	}
		894
		895	This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
		896	that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
		897	the above example :).
		898
		899
		900
674	=head1 MAPPING	901	=head1 MAPPING
675		902
676	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and	903	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
677	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most	904	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
678	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics	905	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
…		…
706		933
707	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or	934	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
708	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On	935	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
709	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all	936	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
710	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and	937	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
711	might represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers.	938	might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
712		939
713	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent	940	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
714	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as	941	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
715	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of	942	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
716	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value.	943	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
		944	which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
		945	re-encoded toa JSON string).
717		946
718	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be	947	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
719	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of	948	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
720	precision.	949	precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
721		950	the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
722	This might create round-tripping problems as numbers might become strings,
723	but as Perl is typeless there is no other way to do it.
724		951
725	=item true, false	952	=item true, false
726		953
727	These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>,	954	These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>,
728	respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers	955	respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
…		…
774	These special values become JSON true and JSON false values,	1001	These special values become JSON true and JSON false values,
775	respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want.	1002	respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want.
776		1003
777	=item blessed objects	1004	=item blessed objects
778		1005
779	Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their	1006	Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON. See the
780	underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might	1007	C<allow_blessed> and C<convert_blessed> methods on various options on
781	change in future versions.	1008	how to deal with this: basically, you can choose between throwing an
		1009	exception, encoding the reference as if it weren't blessed, or provide
		1010	your own serialiser method.
782		1011
783	=item simple scalars	1012	=item simple scalars
784		1013
785	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most	1014	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
786	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as	1015	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
787	JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context	1016	JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
788	before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value:	1017	before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
789		1018
790	# dump as number	1019	# dump as number
791	encode_json [2] # yields [2]	1020	encode_json [2] # yields [2]
792	encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]	1021	encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
793	my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]	1022	my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
…		…
811	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string	1040	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
812	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number	1041	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
813	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.	1042	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
814		1043
815	You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me	1044	You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
816	if you need this capability.	1045	if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
		1046	:).
817		1047
818	=back	1048	=back
819		1049
820		1050
821	=head1 COMPARISON	1051	=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
822		1052
823	As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing	1053	The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
824	JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the	1054	encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
825	problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules,	1055	some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
826	followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer	1056
827	from any of these problems or limitations.	1057	C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
		1058	by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
		1059	control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
		1060	codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
		1061	some combinations make less sense than others.
		1062
		1063	Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
		1064	C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
		1065	these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
		1066	- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
		1067	decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
		1068
		1069	Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
		1070	simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
		1071	takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
		1072	octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
		1073	and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
		1074	the same time, which can be confusing.
828		1075
829	=over 4	1076	=over 4
830		1077
831	=item JSON 1.07	1078	=item C<utf8> flag disabled
832		1079
833	Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl).	1080	When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
		1081	and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
		1082	values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
		1083	characters are decoded as-is, no canges to them will be done, except
		1084	"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
		1085	respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
		1086	funny/weird/dumb stuff).
834		1087
835	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles Unicode values is	1088	This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
836	undocumented. One can get far by feeding it Unicode strings and doing	1089	want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
837	en-/decoding oneself, but Unicode escapes are not working properly).	1090	the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
		1091	filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
		1092	to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
838		1093
839	No round-tripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g.	1094	=item C<utf8> flag enabled
840	the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will
841	decode into the number 2.
842		1095
843	=item JSON::PC 0.01	1096	If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
		1097	characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
		1098	expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
		1099	of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
		1100	that.
844		1101
845	Very fast.	1102	The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
		1103	will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
		1104	octet/binary string in Perl.
846		1105
847	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling.	1106	=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
848		1107
849	No round-tripping.	1108	With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
		1109	with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
		1110	characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
850		1111
851	Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic	1112	If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
852	values will make it croak).	1113	character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
		1114	Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
		1115	ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
		1116	the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
853		1117
854	Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}>	1118	If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
855	which is not a valid JSON text.	1119	regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
		1120	C<\uXXXX> then before.
856		1121
857	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not	1122	Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
858	getting fixed).	1123	encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
		1124	encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
		1125	a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
859		1126
860	=item JSON::Syck 0.21	1127	Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
		1128	values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
		1129	to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
		1130	Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
861		1131
862	Very buggy (often crashes).	1132	So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
		1133	they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
863		1134
864	Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much	1135	The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
865	undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a	1136	as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
866	single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to
867	generate ASCII-only JSON texts).
868		1137
869	Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (Unicode	1138	The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
870	escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to	1139	with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
871	I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).	1140	as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
872		1141	8-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
873	No round-tripping (simple cases work, but this depends on whether the scalar	1142	when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
874	value was used in a numeric context or not).	1143	might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
875		1144	proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
876	Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.
877
878	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not
879	getting fixed).
880
881	Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
882	return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
883	issue: imagine two banks transferring money between each other using
884	JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
885	while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
886	good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
887	the transaction will still not succeed).
888
889	=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
890
891	Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
892
893	Undocumented Unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
894	still don't get parsed properly).
895
896	Very inflexible.
897
898	No round-tripping.
899
900	Does not generate valid JSON texts (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
901	result in nothing being output)
902
903	Does not check input for validity.
904		1145
905	=back	1146	=back
906		1147
907		1148
908	=head2 JSON and YAML	1149	=head2 JSON and YAML
909		1150
910	You often hear that JSON is a subset (or a close subset) of YAML. This is,	1151	You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
911	however, a mass hysteria and very far from the truth. In general, there is	1152	hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
912	no way to configure JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML.	1153	so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
		1154	JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
		1155	cases.
913		1156
914	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this	1157	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
915	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):	1158	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
916		1159
917	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);	1160	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
918	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";	1161	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
919		1162
920	This will usually generate JSON texts that also parse as valid	1163	This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
921	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key	1164	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
922	lengths that JSON doesn't have, so you should make sure that your hash	1165	lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
		1166	unicode handling, so you should make sure that your hash keys are
923	keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 characters YAML allows.	1167	noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows and that
		1168	you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the Unicode BMP
		1169	(basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/> sequences in
		1170	strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but other JSON
		1171	generators might).
924		1172
925	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of. In general	1173	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
		1174	specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
926	you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice versa,	1175	general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
927	or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are high	1176	versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
928	that you will run into severe interoperability problems.	1177	high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
		1178	least expect it.
		1179
		1180	=over 4
		1181
		1182	=item (*)
		1183
		1184	I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
		1185	authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
		1186	acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
		1187	bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
		1188	educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
		1189	problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
		1190	and worthless idiot>(unquote).
		1191
		1192	In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
		1193	clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
		1194	proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
		1195	that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
		1196	educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
		1197	real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
		1198	point out that it isn't true.
		1199
		1200	=back
929		1201
930		1202
931	=head2 SPEED	1203	=head2 SPEED
932		1204
933	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following	1205	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
934	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program	1206	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
935	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own	1207	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
936	system.	1208	system.
937		1209
938	First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short	1210	First comes a comparison between various modules using
939	single-line JSON string:	1211	a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
		1212	L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
940		1213
941	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \	1214	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \
942	"id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]}	1215	"id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]}
943		1216
944	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses	1217	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
…		…
963	about three times faster on decoding, and over forty times faster	1236	about three times faster on decoding, and over forty times faster
964	than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares	1237	than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares
965	favourably to Storable for small amounts of data.	1238	favourably to Storable for small amounts of data.
966		1239
967	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals	1240	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
968	search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg):	1241	search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
969		1242
970	module \| encode \| decode \|	1243	module \| encode \| decode \|
971	-----------\|------------\|------------\|	1244	-----------\|------------\|------------\|
972	JSON 1.x \| 55.260 \| 34.971 \|	1245	JSON 1.x \| 55.260 \| 34.971 \|
973	JSON::DWIW \| 825.228 \| 1082.513 \|	1246	JSON::DWIW \| 825.228 \| 1082.513 \|
…		…
1015	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be	1288	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
1016	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process	1289	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
1017	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the	1290	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
1018	C<max_depth> method.	1291	C<max_depth> method.
1019		1292
1020	And last but least, something else could bomb you that I forgot to think	1293	Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1021	of. In that case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints,	1294	case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1022	though...	1295
		1296	Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
		1297	structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
		1298	information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
		1299	will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
1023		1300
1024	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption	1301	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
1025	by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at	1302	by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
1026	L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see whether	1303	L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see whether
1027	you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser	1304	you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser
…		…
1033	=head1 THREADS	1310	=head1 THREADS
1034		1311
1035	This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no	1312	This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1036	plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the	1313	plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1037	horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated	1314	horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1038	process simulations - use fork, its I<much> faster, cheaper, better).	1315	process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1039		1316
1040	(It might actually work, but you have been warned).	1317	(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1041		1318
1042		1319
1043	=head1 BUGS	1320	=head1 BUGS
1044		1321
1045	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does	1322	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1046	not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is	1323	not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is
1047	still relatively early in its development. If you keep reporting bugs they	1324	still relatively early in its development. If you keep reporting bugs they
1048	will be fixed swiftly, though.	1325	will be fixed swiftly, though.
1049		1326
1050	Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting	1327	Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1051	service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.	1328	service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
…		…
1073	"--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },	1350	"--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
1074	fallback => 1;	1351	fallback => 1;
1075		1352
1076	1;	1353	1;
1077		1354
		1355	=head1 SEE ALSO
		1356
		1357	The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
		1358
1078	=head1 AUTHOR	1359	=head1 AUTHOR
1079		1360
1080	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	1361	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1081	http://home.schmorp.de/	1362	http://home.schmorp.de/
1082		1363

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Revision 1.79 by root, Wed Dec 19 11:42:52 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.96 by root, Wed Mar 26 01:40:42 2008 UTC