[Opensim-dev] what to use for serializing structures? LLSD? XmlSerializer? JSON?

[Justin Clark-Casey]

Dr Scofield wrote:
> Stefan Andersson wrote:
>> Ok, next time, I'll half the dose of that cough syrup.
>>  
>> Aaanyway : I still think it's a REALLY bad idea to put forward as a 
>> 'standard region API' something that is more 
>> application-and-environment specific (JSON) when there is something 
>> that is less application-and-environment specific (XML)
> oops...this is not a standard region API, this is supposed to be a 
> control API to allow us to control region specific information of an 
> OpenSim instance.
>> Is there a concrete win with Json over Xml that I'm missing?
> i'd say, easy to parse from AJAX side, less verbose, doesn't require 
> knowledge of the class definition to make sense of it (well, at least to 
> some extent).

 From what I've read of JSON, I don't believe it's tied to any specific 
language - to some extent it just happens to be directly evaluatable in 
Javascript since that was from where it originated.

However, I do personally prefer XML - there are just more tools and 
libraries out there for it and it's more familiar.  I'm not sure the 
possible advantages of JSON (e.g. less verbosity, though I'm not sure 
that's an issue here) outweigh that.

Oh, and regarding LLSD - yes, let's confine that to linden interop and 
not use it as our core REST format.

>>  
>> And, it would be great if the api was formulated as a set of abstract 
>> classes, interfaces and event hooks, so however you decide to 
>> implement the protocol layer, somebody else could implement it 
>> differently. (SOAP, anybody?)
> hmm...not sure whether i really want to add lots and lots of code around 
> a simple control API.
> 
> we've got a specific need in mind: control an OpenSim instance via REST 
> instead of via console. REST appears to be resource/state centric, 
> XmlRpc/SOAP/et al seems to be more object--method oriented.
> 

I would agree.  Let's have a nice simple REST interface (alongside the 
existing XMLRPC for now).  If we need to elaborate this can happen later 
on...

-- 
justincc
Justin Clark-Casey
http://justincc.wordpress.com