Human JSON

JSON is a versatile format to define data. I read and write JSON all the time but as a subset of JavaScript, it has a few limitations, most notably the lack of support for comments. Enter HJSON, or Human JSON. HJSON makes quotes around object names optional, it makes quotes around strings optional as well, it adds support for multi-line strings, and allows you to add comments in a number of ways. The following is valid HJSON.

{
  // use #, // or /**/ comments,
  // omit quotes for keys
  key: 1
  // omit quotes for strings
  contains: everything on this line
  // omit commas at the end of a line
  cool: {
    foo: 1
    bar: 2
  }
  // allow trailing commas
  list: [
    1,
    2,
  ]
  // and use multiline strings
  realist:
    '''
    My half empty glass,
    I will fill your empty half.
    Now you are half full.
    '''
}

There is an implementation of HJSON for most popular languages, like Java, Python, Go, Python, etc. I’ve used the hjson-java library to read HJSON file and converted it to JSON in a few lines.