Re: JSON mode

[Simen Heggestøyl]

Hi Clément.

More than a year ago I contacted the author of the original JSON mode,
Josh Johnston, to see if we could get JSON mode included in Emacs. At
the same time it seemed like a good idea to remove its basis on JS mode,
since various issues come from it [1, 2]. We would also need to either
get its two MELPA dependencies into GNU ELPA or replace them.

I had already written a JSON mode that I had been using privately for a
while that didn't depend on JS mode, and that didn't depend on any MELPA
packages (it uses json.el bundled with Emacs for the same
functionality). I suggested we merge our two modes before moving it into
Emacs or GNU ELPA. Josh then pointed out that everything from the old
mode was already implemented in the new one. So while the new JSON
mode's code isn't directly based on the old JSON mode's, it carries on
its name, its functionality, and the same default keybindings.

Lastly we agreed to try and make the transition to the new mode as
smooth as possible for the users. I've released the new mode with a
lower version number than Josh's, so Josh's mode will still be installed
for those who have configured MELPA. By doing so I was hoping to get
more testing, and finding out whether the new approach is really
better. If it turns out that it's not, we'll just retract it. If it
turns out that it is, we'll increase the version number higher than the
old mode (for instance 2.0).

-- Simen

[1] https://github.com/joshwnj/json-mode/issues/32
[2] https://github.com/joshwnj/json-mode/issues/34