On 03/26/2013 08:02 AM, Jonas Sicking wrote:
Another "feature" that we are proposing is to drop the current
manifest format and instead use a JSON based one. The most simple
reason for this is that we noticed that the information we need to
express quickly became complex enough that using a format with simple
parsing rules was beneficial.
A format based on extending the current appcache format would be no
problem for a UA to parse. However the complexity that we need to
express resulted in something that's too hard for a human to manually
write, or for a human to understand when looking at somebody else's
manifest in order to learn.
The simple parsing rules for JSON seemed like a better fit. It also
provides more of an opportunity to extend the format in the future.
JSON also has advantages when it comes to creating APIs exposed to
webpages for interacting with appcaches. More about this below.
Some slightly trivial feedback: I am worried about using a format with
no support for comments. I agree that some hypothetical JSON+comments
format would be a good fit, but without the ability to document complex
rulesets, it seems like we are going to create a maintenance nightmare.
