An Algebraic Specification/Schema for JSON

Abstract

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an open standard data format that is used widely across the internet as means of exchanging structured data due to its low overhead. While originally created in the early 2000s, it has only gained standard status in 2013 and then again in 2017 with a new version that focused more on security and interoperability. In this paper the authors present a different specification of the JSON standard that relies on algebraic formal methods and provides certain benefits over a regular natural language specification. This specification can also function as a schema that can attest a JSON data document’s compliance to its blueprint. The absorption of Formal Specification methods by the industry happens at a very slow pace, mostly because there is little incentive to tread into a fairly unknown territory. Notwithstanding this reluctance, the authors encourage the usage of Formal Specification techniques to the specifications of open standards; Formal specifications are more succinct, less ambivalent, consistent to the standard, reusable as they support module inheritance and can be executable. The process of designing new Standards can benefit from Formal Specifications as the resulting specification i) is more tangible; ii) allows a thorough and clear understanding of the standard and also iii) allows property checking and property verification.