Standard data types and functions

Question

Is there any standard and easy way for defining a data type or a function syntax without using a specific programming language?

I currently know of ASN and XML-Schemas, but I find them too complicated and, sometimes, hard to read. Therefore, I am currently using JSON for data types and JSON-RPC for function syntax, even though I know that none of them is neither very precise nor standard.

Answer 1

There are standard ways (you mention two, and ISO 11404 is another). There are easy ways. If ASN.1 and XSD don't count as easy, then I don't expect you will find any standard and easy ways to do what you like.

Datatypes are not trivial, and any method of defining datatypes general enough to be widely useful and standardized is going to have to deal with details, and problems, which from many points of view are "obviously" not important or not relevant. The only problem is that the details and problem which are obviously unimportant from any one point of view tend to be central to some other point of view.