The Excellent JSON Family of Components

Just discovered JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) family of components. The notation itself is a subset of JavaScript syntax. The most interesting is the JSON-RPC (try it here), which is similar to XML-RPC but uses the light-weight format of JSON. What does it mean to us?

1. JSON and relatives are what we would have arrived at if we push up our own JavaScript related mechanisms a few notches.
2. Our implementation of background call to server on the client (currently using a hidden IFrame with more complicated supporting logic) can be replaced by JSON-RPC for 1) simplicity; and 2) a commonly adopted standard (well, not yet standard, but my guess is it will be adopted quickly because of its merits). Then our implementation of partial page refresh will be much easier and cleaner.

Now, look at their other demos. I was thinking of how a DHTML-based Rich Thin Client can handle Visio type of applications. I wanted to explore SVG. Voila, there they have it, JSON with SVG! Wow! Can't wait to get my hands on it!

PS: Mozilla SVG Demos. The SVG DOM will be compatible with existing DOM and will be manipulatible by JavaScript. Just imagine Visio completely implemented with DHTML! Now I am really excited!