Support an option to decode a __struct__ element as an atom.

[michalmuskala]

Support an option to decode a __struct__ element as an atom.

I could work on a pull request if I know that the repo is being maintained.

[michalmuskala]

This repo is being maintained, I'm just not sure about the feature. I don't think it would be enough to just decode the __struct__ key. One issue is that it would bypass some of the features of structs - like structs always having certain keys or the @enforce_keys feature.

Certainly you would be deciding at that point that you trust the JSON to have implemented the struct properly. A possible alternative is to create the struct without just encoding the struct element but that could get much more complicated. What I am trying to avoid is to have to deserialize JSON and then go back through the JSON adding the struct element at every stage of my JSON which has multiple levels and dozens of structs. When I read it from my document database I need to have it become a struct again, not a map. Hence the reason this should be an option, not default behavior. What I dont know is how all the encoders and macros work so it would be longer for me to emplement this but I am willing to give it a try because I need it professionally.

[OvermindDL1]

Personally I'm -1 on this, that seems like the job of some higher DSEL on top of Jason (there are some generic ones that do this already) or so for serialization purposes, not for a low-level and fast json library.

[michalmuskala]

I'm going to close this. Coercing decoded data into structs probably belongs in some higher-level data transformation/validation/coercion library and not in the low-level JSON encoder.