gistfile1.js

x = {
    name: "x"
};

y = {
    name: "y",
    a: x
};

z = {
    name: "z",
    a: x,
    b: y
};

x.b = y;
x.c = z;
y.b = z;


// When encoding x using https://gist.github.com/3373779 the output of the JSON is:
{
    "name": "x",
    "b": {
        "name": "y",
        "b": {
            "name": "z"
        }
    },
    "c": {
        "name": "z",
        "b": {
            "name": "y"
        }
    }
}

// with a tree that looks like:
    x
   / \
  y   z
 /     \
z       y


// An entierly different representation of the data you want to encode.
// Honestly it seems like more times than not, it would be frustrating to work with
// Because you can never get the original data back.

// I propose this format would be more useful:
{
    objects:{"$0": {"name": "x", "b": "__SERIALIZER__$1", "c": "__SERIALIZER__$2"}, 
             "$1": {"name": "y", "a": "__SERIALIZER__$0", "b": "__SERIALIZER__$2"}, 
             "$2": {"name": "z", "a": "__SERIALIZER__$0", "b": "__SERIALIZER__$1"}
            },
    version: "JSONGraphSerializer1.0"
}

// The main advantage here is that you can always get the original object graph back in memory.

// While this basic example does output a larger string, the actual size of the 
// JSON will always be linear with respect to the number of objects encoded. 
// The circular ref remover will grow at a greater rate depending on how deep you 
// have to go to find the circles in the graph. 

// The disadvantage here is that if you're a crazy person and name an object
// attribute '__SERIALIZER__$0' then things get really messy.  

Given the top down approach the serialization of view would throw away button.controller, but I can't think of a situation where that data wouldn't be important. Likewise, if you serialized button instead of view you get an array missing items... I can think of a lot of situations where that would confuse me...

See the second point I made in this comment: https://gist.github.com/3373779#gistcomment-400333

BTW, this seems right up your alley: https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/cycle.js

It's not suitable for me, for the reasons I express here: https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/issues/39#issuecomment-7845004