It is inspired by [RapidXML](http://rapidxml.sourceforge.net/), which is a fast XML DOM parser.
3. Is RapidJSON similar to RapidXML?
RapidJSON borrowed some designs of RapidXML, including *in situ* parsing, header-only library. But the two APIs are completely different. Also RapidJSON provide many features that are not in RapidXML.
4. Is RapidJSON free?
Yes, it is free under MIT license. It can be used in commercial applications. Please check the details in [license.txt](https://github.com/miloyip/rapidjson/blob/master/license.txt).
5. Is RapidJSON small? What are its dependencies?
Yes. A simple executable which parses a JSON and prints its statistics is less than 30KB on Windows.
RapidJSON has been tested in many combinations of operating systems, compilers and CPU architecture by the community. But we cannot ensure that it can be run on your particular platform. Building and running the unit test suite will give you the answer.
8. Does RapidJSON support C++03? C++11?
RapidJSON was firstly implemented for C++03. Later it added optional support of some C++11 features (e.g., move constructor, `noexcept`). RapidJSON shall be compatible with C++03 or C++11 compliant compilers.
9. Does RapidJSON really work in real applications?
Yes. It is deployed in both client and server real applications. A community member reported that RapidJSON in their system parses 50 million JSONs daily.
10. How RapidJSON is tested?
RapidJSON contains a unit test suite for automatic testing. [Travis](https://travis-ci.org/miloyip/rapidjson/) will compile and run the unit test suite for all modifications. The test process also uses Valgrind to detect memory leaks.
11. Is RapidJSON well documented?
RapidJSON provides [user guide and API documentationn](http://miloyip.github.io/rapidjson/index.html).
Yes, there are a lot alternatives. For example, [nativejson-benchmark](https://github.com/miloyip/nativejson-benchmark) has a listing of open-source C/C++ JSON libraries. [json.org](http://www.json.org/) also has a list.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It uses human readable text format. More details of JSON can be referred to [RFC7159](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc7159.txt) and [ECMA-404](http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-404.htm).
2. What are applications of JSON?
JSON are commonly used in web applications for transferring structured data. It is also used as a file format for data persistence.
Yes. RapidJSON is fully compliance with [RFC7159](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc7159.txt) and [ECMA-404](http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-404.htm). It can handle corner cases, such as supporting null character and surrogate pairs in JSON strings.
Currently no. RapidJSON only support the strict standardized format. Support on related syntax is under discussion in this [issue](https://github.com/miloyip/rapidjson/issues/36).
*in situ* parsing decodes the JSON strings directly into the input JSON. This is an optimization which can reduce memory consumption and improve performance, but the input JSON will be modified. Check [in-situ parsing](http://miloyip.github.io/rapidjson/md_doc_dom.html#InSituParsing) for details.
5. When does parsing generate an error?
The parser generates an error when the input JSON contains invalid syntax, or a value can not be represented (a number is too big), or the handler of parsers terminate the parsing. Check [parse error](http://miloyip.github.io/rapidjson/md_doc_dom.html#ParseError) for details.
The error is stored in `ParseResult`, which includes the error code and offset (number of characters from the beginning of JSON). The error code can be translated into human-readable error message.
Some applications use 64-bit unsigned/signed integers. And these integers cannot be converted into `double` without loss of precision. So the parsers detects whether a JSON number is convertible to different types of integers and/or `double`.
