README

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=================================================

   A JSON patching and diffing library
   
    (c) 2011 Mikola Lysenko
   
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1. About

patcher.js is a simple javascript library for diffing and
patching JSON documents.  This can be useful, for example,
in a networked environment where retransmitting large JSON
documents is too expensive.


2. Example:

>
> //Start with two distinct objects on the server
> // prev represents a copy of the state of the object on the client
> // next represents a copy of the state of the object on the server
> //
> //1. Compute a patch
> patch = patcher.computePatch(prev, next);
> 
> //2. Send patch over the network
>
> //3. Apply the patch on the client
> patcher.applyPatch(prev, patch);
> 
> //Final invariant:
> //   prev represents an equivalent object to JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(next))
>



3.  API

There are two functions in patcher.js:

  function computePatch(prev, next, update_in_place);

  The argument prev is the object which the patch targets.
  
    * If update_in_place is set to true, then the function
    will simultaneously update both prev and next at the same
    time.
    * If prev and next are equal, then the method returns null
    * Constructing this patch requires time linear on the 
    size of the two documents.
    * Patches are computed at the level of the objects and
    arrays.  String modifications are simply retransmitted
    
  
  
  function applyPatch(obj, patch)
  
  This function applies a patch to the JSON document obj


4. Future

  * More test cases!
  * Use data types cleverly
  * Binary serialization