[yogthos]

XML and JSON are both examples of the problem actually. S-expressions have existed since the 50s, and they solve all the same problems with a much saner syntax. In fact, if Mozilla marketing execs didn't insist on Java style syntax for Js, and it kept Scheme style syntax we wouldn't even need HTML and CSS today. We'd have a single syntax that would cleanly express code, styling, and layout.

[marcosdumay]

S-expressions do not have typed standards for serializing dates and booleans like JSON. They also can't distinguish numbers from text.

S-expressions also have no standard for comments, and can't distinguish maps from lists.

A S-expression based serialization standard would be a bit cleaner than JSON, but it's enough of a change that it's worth redoing anything.

[yogthos]

All of that and more is available with s-expressions in Clojure https://github.com/edn-format/edn