JSON is extremely popular but deeply flawed. This article discusses the details of JSON’s design, how it’s used (and misused), and how seemingly helpful “human readability” features cause headaches instead. Crucially, you rarely find JSON-based tools (except dedicated tools like jq) that can safely handle arbitrary JSON documents without a schema—common corner cases can lead to data corruption! What is JSON? JSON is famously simple. In fact, you can fit the entire grammar on the back of a busine...