this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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Programming
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If both sides have a shared data model it's a good base model without further needs. Anything else quickly becomes complicated because of the dynamic nature of JSON - at least if you want a robust or well-documented solution.
If the sides don't have a common understanding of the data structure, no format under the sun will help.
The point is that there are degrees to readability, specificity, and obviousness, even without a common understanding. Self-describing data, much like self-describing code, is different from a dense serialization without much support in that regard.
Yeah, when the same API endpoint sometimes return a string for an error, sometimes an object, and sometimes an array, JSON doesn't help much in parsing the mess