Hi Folks,

Some remarkable statements were made yesterday. I’d like to challenge some of them (or at least explore them more deeply).

Here’s a statement that was made:

XML is a markup language, JSON is not.

Do you agree with that statement? What exactly does the phrase “markup language” mean? This is markup:

                <Title>The First and Last Freedom</Title>

but this is not:

                “Title”: “The First and Last Freedom”

Yes?

So a data format is a “markup language” if it uses pointy brackets, otherwise it’s not a markup language. Yes?

Here’s another statement that was made:

XML is an information exchange language,

whereas JSON is an object exchange language.

Do you agree with that statement? What exactly is an “information exchange language”? What is an “object change language”? Does this mean that JSON cannot be used to exchange information? A JSON object does not contain information? Here’s a valid JSON instance:

[1 ,2, 3]

That’s a JSON array, not a JSON object. So how can one legitimately call JSON an object exchange language?

/Roger