[Geojson] advantages

Michael Geary mg at mg.to
Wed Mar 6 05:52:02 PST 2013


In the most literal sense, GeoJSON has no advantages over JSON, because
GeoJSON *is* JSON. Every piece of GeoJSON data is by definition JSON data.

As you know, JSON lets you create objects and arrays with any names and
structure you want to give them. GeoJSON is merely a specification for a
particular arrangement of JSON data useful for geographic data: what
objects to create and what to name them.

So it's a bit like asking which tastes better, a slice of apple or a slice
of fruit. An apple *is* fruit, so the question doesn't quite make sense.

Now I'm not saying this is a bad question to ask. In fact it's a rather
interesting question and I'm glad you asked it.

Let's think about it a different way: maybe the real question is "What are
the advantages of GeoJSON over making up my own JSON structures for
geographic data?" Now that's easy to answer: If you make up your own JSON
structures, only your own code will work with them. If you use GeoJSON, you
have the possibility of working with other software that knows how to read
and write this format.

There's a similar situation with KML and XML. KML is XML just as GeoJSON is
JSON: every KML document is an XML document by definition. In that sense
you can't say that KML has any advantage over XML. But KML does have an
advantage over making up your own flavor of XML for geographic data:
compatibility with other software.

-Mike


On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 5:12 AM, Prabhu Vj <prabhu.be1990 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>       I want to know the advantages of GeoJSON over JSON... Please Help
> Me..
>
> Thanks
> Prabhu Jeevan
>
> _______________________________________________
> Geojson mailing list
> Geojson at lists.geojson.org
> http://lists.geojson.org/listinfo.cgi/geojson-geojson.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.geojson.org/pipermail/geojson-geojson.org/attachments/20130306/6d4ddb7e/attachment.htm>


More information about the GeoJSON mailing list