== Transport == P1689 suggests using JSON. I'm comparing that in the context of the three options with a binary format (CBOR). One thing SG16 is completely in agreement of is that if you go with JSON, you must obey RFC 8259: there must not be a BOM and the file must be encoded in UTF-8.
We haven't polled anything, so saying we're all in agreement is premature. Additionally, we discussed this further in the SG16 meeting yesterday and I think we determined that a BOM *may* be present.
RFC 8259 section 8.1 states: (emphasis mine)
JSON text exchanged between systems that are not part of a closed ecosystem MUST be encoded using UTF-8 [RFC3629].
Previous specifications of JSON have not required the use of UTF-8 when transmitting JSON text. However, the vast majority of JSON-based software implementations have chosen to use the UTF-8 encoding, to the extent that it is the only encoding that achieves interoperability.
Implementations MUST NOT add a byte order mark (U+FEFF) to the beginning of a networked-transmitted JSON text. In the interests of interoperability, implementations that parse JSON texts MAY ignore the presence of a byte order mark rather than treating it as an error.
My reading of this is that RFC 8259 permits use of non-UTF-8
encodings in some situations. Whether the situation that P1689 is
defined for qualifies is something that could be debated. If we
consider the build system and compiler invocations to form a
closed system, then the dependency file could be, for example,
EBCDIC encoded JSON and still conform to RFC 8259. I'm not
arguing for or against such a position at this time; but rather
noting that, if SG15 requires UTF-8 encoded JSON, that requirement
is arguably more restrictive than what RFC 8259 requires.
My reading of the BOM requirements is that they only apply to UTF-8 data sent over the network and that use of a BOM in file contents is permitted.
ECMA 404 does not specify any requirements on encoding of the JSON content, nor the presence or absence of a BOM.
My conclusions are, if we choose to adopt either RFC 8259 or ECMA 404 as the JSON specification deferred to, and if we don't add additional restrictions, that:
Tom.