edn and Fressian: Flexible Languages for Data

edn and Fressian are self-describing, schema-free, batteries-included, extensible data languages. In this talk, you will find out where you might benefit from these languages over e.g. JSON or XML.

Systems use many languages, and not just programming languages such as Java, C#, Ruby, or Python. Systems also relay on data languages, both for data on the wire, and for data at rest. These data languages differ greatly in their design objectives and capabilities, and are often less understood than their programming language counterparts.

This talk will introduce two data notations: edn and Fressian, which share several common characteristics. Both are

• self-describing
• schema-free
• batteries-included
• extensible

These capabilities align well with the dynamic, flexible needs of real systems. And in their key difference (text vs. binary), edn and Fressian cover the bases of human readability and maximum performance.