org.ccil.cowan.tagsoup:tagsoup vs org.json:json

JSON is a light-weight, language independent, data interchange format. See http://www.JSON.org/ The files in this package implement JSON encoders/decoders in Java. It also includes the capability to convert between JSON and XML, HTTP headers, Cookies, and CDL. This is a reference implementation. There is a large number of JSON packages in Java. Perhaps someday the Java community will standardize on one. Until then, choose carefully. The license includes this restriction: "The software shall be used for good, not evil." If your conscience cannot live with that, then choose a different package. The package compiles on Java 1.2 thru Java 1.4.

TagSoup is a SAX-compliant parser written in Java that, instead of parsing well-formed or valid XML, parses HTML as it is found in the wild: poor, nasty and brutish, though quite often far from short. TagSoup is designed for people who have to process this stuff using some semblance of a rational application design. By providing a SAX interface, it allows standard XML tools to be applied to even the worst HTML. TagSoup also includes a command-line processor that reads HTML files and can generate either clean HTML or well-formed XML that is a close approximation to XHTML.