making a structure where you have to decode it first before you can find out what kind of data it is

i use a static typed language and these kinds of structures require double handling, no matter what way you do it you have to scan ahead to find the type before you know how to unpack it

if they instead made an object like:

{

"arrayType1:[1,2,3,4],

"structType:[

{"itemname":"name","description":"describe the thing"},

{"itemname":"name","description":"describe the thing"}

],

"singletonItem":{"it's just one thing"}

}

i would know what it is before i start reading it