Re: parse html for specific things

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Re^2: parse html for specific things by afoken (Chancellor) on Dec 16, 2017 at 10:53 UTC
pretty much unreadable Probably because it is not intended to be read by humans. JSON parsers will have no problem with lack of irrelevant white space, so why bother adding white space? Compare with the HTML delivered by the Google start pages, or the "compressed" version of jQuery. Both are size-optimized input for the browser's parser, not intended to be read by humans in this form. My guess is that the JSON blob is loaded into a web page or into an appllication that parses the data and generates a nice, human readable view of the data. Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]
Re^3: parse html for specific things by marto (Cardinal) on Dec 16, 2017 at 11:05 UTC
JSON is human readable. I think the comment relates to posting it on a site. Perhaps, for posting purposes, in the same we the guidelines suggest sensible layout of code/data example, it'd be wise for users to post pretty printed JSON to make it easier for humans here reading/responding to questions. Of course perl can help here, or there are simply online tools for doing so, for example http://jsonprettyprint.com.	[reply]
Re^3: parse html for specific things by Laurent_R (Canon) on Dec 16, 2017 at 11:12 UTC
Probably because it is not intended to be read by humans. JSON parsers will have no problem with lack of irrelevant white space, so why bother adding white space? Yes, I fully appreciate that it doesn't matter for parsers. But, still, when I have to write some JSON or some HTML, I usually prefer to insert at least some vertical space (EOLs), because there is almost always a time somewhere in the future when I or another human will need to read the source or change it. My take on this is similar to what I do with Perl or C code: to make it friendly to the human reader. But I certainly understand your point that you may also need to optimize your document's size, especially if it's going to be transmitted zillions of times over a network which may sometimes be slow.	[reply]
Re^4: parse html for specific things by roboticus (Chancellor) on Dec 18, 2017 at 16:52 UTC
Laurent_R: Yep, that's why my ~/bin directory contains json_prettify.pl: `#!/usr/bin/perl # # json_prettify.pl <FName> # # Prettifies FName and writes it to FName.out # use strict; use warnings; use JSON; my $json = JSON->new->allow_nonref; while (my $FName = shift) { my $oname = $FName . ".out"; my $txt; { local $/; open my $FH, '<', $FName or die "no! $!\n"; $txt = <$FH>; } my $data = $json->decode($txt); $txt = $json->pretty->encode($data); open my $OFH, '>', $oname or die "No no no! $!\n"; print $OFH $txt; }` [download] I really need to make a thumb drive with my local ~/bin directory copied to it for when I visit other sites... ;^) ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: parse html for specific things by hippo (Bishop) on Dec 18, 2017 at 17:18 UTC
Re^6: parse html for specific things by roboticus (Chancellor) on Dec 18, 2017 at 22:10 UTC
Re^2: parse html for specific things by Dallaylaen (Chaplain) on Dec 19, 2017 at 08:18 UTC
Readability of JSON is solved by a one-liner: `perl -MJSON -we 'local $/; print JSON->new->pretty->canonical->encode( +decode_json(<>))'` [download] Too bad that doesn't work with anything Turing-complete, like JS code or Perl itself...	[reply] [d/l]