May 14 2009

Best. Serializer. Ever.

Last night's 'Itchy and Scratchy Show' was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured, I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world. I have really enjoyed some of the discussion on the Json.NET CodePlex forum recently. Lots of people have posed interesting scenarios and it has been fun coming up with solutions that makes Json.NET a better tool for everyone.

With practically every request these days being something around serialization I have set a goal: make Json.NET the best serializer for .NET

See that underline? That just happened. No pressure, no diamonds folks.

Ideas Wanted

I think the JsonSerializer is most of the way there already but I know there are places where it could do better.

What I’m most interested in are:

What it is missing compared the old XmlSerializer and new DataContractSerializer (FYI I just added tracking object references)
What common scenarios it handles poorly
What popular frameworks it has trouble with
Anything that is already there but you think is stupid and dumb
General ideas or suggestions
Useful JsonConverters you might have written that would be worth including for everyone

Most ideas come from you guys (I have no imagination) and all feedback is welcome.