Strictly define what the terms "parsing", "serializing", "deserializing", and "type conversion" mean and how they relate.

[gregmarr]

@falbrechtskirchinger wrote:

Some day we should strictly define what the terms "parsing", "serializing", "deserializing", and "type conversion" mean and how they relate.

My thoughts:

• parsing/loading: conversion of text/binary blob/file/stream to nlohmann::basic_json
• deserializing: conversion of nlohmann::basic_json to ArbitraryStructure
• serializing: conversion of ArbitraryStructure to nlohmann::basic_json
• dumping/outputting/saving: conversion of nlohmann::basic_json to text/binary blob/file/stream.

[nlohmann]

My 2 cents:

• "Parsing" and "deserializing" are synonyms for any function converting a serialization (i.e., sequence of bytes) into a structured format. API functions are parse or from_xxx for the binary formats.
• "Serializing" and "dumping", etc. are synonyms for the reverse function of converting a structure to a sequence of bytes. API functions are dump or to_xxx for the binary formats.
• The conversions with to_json and from_json have no proper name to me. In the end they can be seen as casting between C++ types.

That said, it's good to have a discussion! I guess this will greatly improve the documentation.

[falbrechtskirchinger]

When I made that comment I had a somewhat different idea. Having read two definitions, I don't know anymore. I'd defer to the dictionary and compare how other well-known projects use the terms.