Progressive JSON
AI Summary
The video explores the concept of “Progressive JSON,” comparing it to progressive JPEGs where images get clearer as they load. The main idea proposed is to stream JSON data progressively rather than waiting for the entire JSON object to finish loading before processing it. The speaker highlights challenges and considerations, such as incomplete data structures during streaming, type mismatches, and handling promises in client code. The video also discusses alternatives like streaming JSON in breadth-first order and reusing object references to reduce redundant data, akin to the structure used by Netflix for efficient data transfer. Furthermore, it analogizes streaming JSON to React Server Components, which stream page data progressively but use suspense boundaries to avoid visual loading glitches. Lastly, the speaker reflects on the complexity, potential debugging difficulties, and the impressive engineering feat of progressive streaming in modern apps, encouraging exploration of streaming data to improve responsiveness.