Re:RX – a new random-access JSON alternative
by hrmtst93837 on Thursday March 19, 2026 @06:18AM
(#47437108)
That rule sounds clean until the DB dump, API trace, or langauge boundary lands in your lap. Binary formats are fine for tight inner loops, but once the data leaks into logs, tooling, support, or a second codebase, the bytes you saved tend to come back as time lost decoding some bespoke mess.
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Re:RX – a new random-access JSON alternative
by creationix on Thursday March 19, 2026 @10:04AM
(#47439668)
Yep. I did try binary formats first. I tried existing ones like CBOR, I tried making my own like Nibs. The text encoding is an operational concern, not a technical one.
This is the same reason I've been advocating for JSONL at work. It's not ideal technically, but it's a good balance of technically good enough while being also human friendly when things go wrong.
- https://vercel.com/blog/how-we-made-global-routing-faster-wi... - https://vercel.com/blog/scaling-redirects-to-infinity-on-ver...
RX is one step towards less human friendly, but more machine friendly. I try to keep things balanced in my designs.