specification.md

MiniJSON specification

MiniJSON is a binary encoding for a subset of JSON that:

• has no keys longer than 255 bytes UTF-8
• has no string values longer than 255 bytes UTF-8
• has no lists longer than 255 elements
• has no dicts longer than 255 elements

MiniJSON is bigger endian.

Type Value consists of:

• unsigned char value

• unsigned char * data

• If value's highest bit is turned on, then remains are a UTF-8 string with len of (value & 0x7F)

• If value's two highest bits are 0100 or 0101, then four lowest bits encode the number of elements, and the four highest bits encode type of the object:

  • 0100 - a list
  • 0101 - an object Standard representation for an object or list follows, sans the element count.

• If value is zero, then next character is the length of the string followed by the string

• If value is 1, then next data is signed int

• If value is 2, then next data is signed short

• If value is 3, then next data is signed char

• If value is 4, then next data is unsigned int

• If value is 5, then next data is unsigned short

• If value is 6, then next data is unsigned char

• If value is 7, then next data is number of elements of a list, follows by Value of each element

• If value is 8, the value is a NULL

• If value is 9, then next element is a IEEE single

• If value is 10, then next element is a IEEE double

• If value is 11, then next element is amount of entries for an object, then there goes the length of the field name, followed by field name in UTF-8, and then goes the Value of the element

• If value is 12, then next data is unsigned int24