JsonLogic – Build complex rules, serialize them as JSON

Re:JsonLogic – Build complex rules, serialize them as JSON by andrewstuart2 on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:03PM (#12784942)

This is code. Instructions codified into a machine-readable format. It's just really verbose and complex code. It reads almost exactly like Polish notation [1], assembly code, an abstract syntax tree. Except encapsulated in JSON trees rather than space-separated lists.

The problem is that it's almost entirely optimized for a machine to read, and not for a human.

Next thing you know, you've written something a little complex in this new format and realized it's pretty hard to maintain. So what should you do? Create a program to generate it, perhaps, from a higher level, easier to read, representation. In other words, a compiler.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_notation

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:JsonLogic – Build complex rules, serialize them as JSON by asciimike on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:28PM (#12785055)

I don't think I ever said it wasn't code, I said it wasn't "backend code". We've exchanged some config (sure, basically an AST) for writing some express/django/rails middleware. I'd much rather check authentication status by writing "{"!=", [request.auth, null]}" than writing more backend code, especially if someone else has done a bunch of the work for me.

That said, I'd argue this notation probably isn't a super concise representation for config over code. Implementing a JS evaluator so you could instead write "request.auth != null" and having JS like expressions is easier than the Prefix notation. Cool idea nonetheless!

[ Parent | on HN ]