Reflecting on deserialization. Why you should explicitly decode your JSON.
Summary
The article analyzes reflection-based JSON deserialization in statically typed languages, using C# as the primary example and highlighting how POCOs and runtime reflection can simplify common use cases when both sides are controlled. It also covers challenges with nonconforming payloads and the additional complexity of using attributes and custom converters, which can obscure debugging and add boilerplate. Finally, it contrasts this approach with Gleam's decoder-based workflow, showing how decoders can merge decoding with domain mapping for safer, composable data handling.