1.3 JSON – our new friend

Do you sometimes feel that coping with IT issues is a continuous struggle with acronyms? Well, you’re not alone. We share this opinion. An old anecdote says that computer technology development is in fact based on TLA. What is TLA? It's simple – it's a Three-Letter Acronym. Close your eyes, strain your mind and try to recall five acronyms commonly used in the IT world.

We bet four of them will be TLA.

And – look! – TLA is a TLA too. What a coincidence!

Now it’s time to break this pattern. The acronym we'll present to you now is four letters long. What a nice change!

Let us explain its meaning:

• Java…
• …Script
• Object
• Notation

As you can see, there’s a little riddle inside the name. It may be a bit disturbing, too, and some sudden questions may have appeared in your mind just now, e.g., “Java? Do you want me to learn Java? Or even JavaScript?”

No, we don't. Fortunately, the notation we want to tell you about, although created with JavaScript environments in mind, works perfectly without JavaScript. In fact, it can be used by virtually all modern programming environments thanks to the standardized libraries of functions and unified services. It doesn't matter what programming language has been used to implement a certain solution – JSON is a kind of universal bridge able to move data between seemingly incompatible parties.

JSON is the answer to quite a basic need – the need to transfer data that is the content of an object or set of objects. The mechanism which solves it should be portable and platform independent.

How can we meet such a requirement?