I've been wondering whether the JSON datatype should be strict or conservative.
For one, there's strict JSON (following the exact specification).
Then there's more conservative JSON variants. Some JSON parsers
support comments, some support invalid number formats (e.g. '3.' or
'+5'), etc..
The consensus seems to be that JSON content should be stored verbatim
(it should store the exact string the client sent to it), as is done
with XML. However, this notion is somewhat incompatible with "Be
conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from
others" because we can't accept loose JSON, then spit out conservative
JSON without messing with the content.
Here's my idea: the datatype should only allow strict JSON, but there
should be a function that accepts a liberal format, cleans it up to
make it strict JSON, and converts it to JSON. I think making strict
JSON the default makes the most sense because:* Inputs to the database will most likely be coming from programs, not
humans.*Output is expected to be valid JSON and work anywhere JSON should work.* Strict JSON is what more people would
expect,I'd think.