There's a long-standing request for Scribunto to provide library functions
for JSON encoding and decoding.
The advantage of this would be improved interoperability with the growing
number of extensions that use JSON (e.g. JsonConfig, Graph).
The disadvantages include:
* People may store data in JSON blobs that must be parsed where a module
using mw.loadData would be more appropriate.
* People may write templates that attempt to bypass the normal MediaWiki
parameter handling mechanism in favor of passing a JSON blob, which would
likely lead to page wikitext that is harder for end users to understand.
So, let's discuss it: do the advantages outweigh the potential
disadvantages? Are there additional advantages or disadvantages not yet
mentioned?
--
Brad Jorsch (Anomie)
Software Engineer
Wikimedia Foundation