In most JSON serializers/deserializers, the "key" part in a javascript dictionary/hash array is written as a string.
What is the benefit of using a string as the key as opposed to just typing the intended name in?
For example, say I define two objects k1 and k2 like so:
var k1 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 }; // define name normally
var k2 = { "a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3 }; // define name with a string
And I then ran the following tests:
alert(k1 == k2); // false (of course)
alert(k1.a == k2.a); // true
alert(k1["b"] == k2["b"]); // true
alert(uneval(k1)); // returns the k1 object literal notation.
alert(uneval(k2)); // returns the same string as above line.
alert(uneval(k1) == uneval(k2)); // true
So what's the point of having the keys be in double-quotation marks (a string) as in the way k2 was defined instead of just typing the key names in as in the way k1 was defined?
I just saw this over at Ajaxian pointing to Aaron Boodman's blog entry:
chromium.tabs.createTab({
"url": "http://www.google.com/",
"selected": true,
"tabIndex": 3
});
Since he also use camel case for tabIndex, I don't see any point in using a string at all.
Why not:
chromium.tabs.createTab({
url: "http://www.google.com/",
selected: true,
tabIndex: 3
});
Why would a JS ninja follows the convention of turning url, selected and tabIndex into a string?