serilize.js: Extended JSON serilization

This extends the default JSON serialization adding the following:

• Recursive data structure serialization
• undefined/NaN serialization
• Set/Map serialization
• Function serialization (off by default)
• Deep and partial-deep cleen object copy

Motivation

This was originally built as a companion to a testing module for a programming class, illustrating several concepts, including: guaranteed clean isolation of data structures via serialization, instrumenting code and tooling design, basic parsing, among others.

Installation

Introduction

Serializing functions

Due to how JavaScript is designed it is not possible to trivially and fully clone a function with all of it's references, .serilaize(..) will not attempt to clone any state a function may have, this will lead to loosing:

• Function closure
• Attributes set on the function or any of it's prototypes, including the .__proto__ value if it was changed.

Thus, care must be taken when serializing structures containing function.

API

serialize(..) / eJSON.stringify(..)

deserialize(..) / 'eJSON.parse(..)'

deepCopy(..)

partialDeepCopy(..)

Format

The output of .serialize(..) is a strict superset of standard JSON, while the input format is a bit more relaxed than in several details.

Extensions to JSON:

• Recursion
• undefined / NaN
• BigInt
• Map / Set
• Function

Structural paths

Recursion

null types

BigInt

Map / Set

Functions