I've been using CouchDB a lot over the last six months or so and I've been seeing a lot of JSON on the command line - either through curl or using my own application-specific command line utilities. I must admit that I rather like working with JSON on the command line - it is easy on the eye but allows far more powerful structures than the usual Unix approach of lines with delimited fields (which I've been happily using for 20+ years).
Using JSON to extend command line processing looks to me like it is a nice step forward. Things like Microsoft's PowerShell are perhaps conceptually more elegant (where you pass real live objects about) but the practical reality always seems very fussy and tied to a particular programming platform. Other approaches (e.g. passing XML between Unix-style command line programs) isn't very appealing due to the general ugliness and verbosity of most XML.
Comments
I've been using CouchDB a lot over the last six months or so and I've been seeing a lot of JSON on the command line - either through curl or using my own application-specific command line utilities. I must admit that I rather like working with JSON on the command line - it is easy on the eye but allows far more powerful structures than the usual Unix approach of lines with delimited fields (which I've been happily using for 20+ years).
Using JSON to extend command line processing looks to me like it is a nice step forward. Things like Microsoft's PowerShell are perhaps conceptually more elegant (where you pass real live objects about) but the practical reality always seems very fussy and tied to a particular programming platform. Other approaches (e.g. passing XML between Unix-style command line programs) isn't very appealing due to the general ugliness and verbosity of most XML.