(function($) {

    // the code of this function is from

    // http://lucassmith.name/pub/typeof.html

    $.type = function(o) {

        var _toS = Object.prototype.toString;

        var _types = {

            'undefined': 'undefined',

            'number': 'number',

            'boolean': 'boolean',

            'string': 'string',

            '[object Function]': 'function',

            '[object RegExp]': 'regexp',

            '[object Array]': 'array',

            '[object Date]': 'date',

            '[object Error]': 'error'

        };

        return _types[typeof o] || _types[_toS.call(o)] || (o ? 'object' : 'null');

    };

    // the code of these two functions is from mootools

    // http://mootools.net

    var $specialChars = { '\b': '\\b', '\t': '\\t', '\n': '\\n', '\f': '\\f', '\r': '\\r', '"': '\\"', '\\': '\\\\' };

    var $replaceChars = function(chr) {

        return $specialChars[chr] || '\\u00' + Math.floor(chr.charCodeAt() / 16).toString(16) + (chr.charCodeAt() % 16).toString(16);

    };

    $.toJSON = function(o) {

        var s = [];

        switch ($.type(o)) {

            case 'undefined':

                return 'undefined';

                break;

            case 'null':

                return 'null';

                break;

            case 'number':

            case 'boolean':

            case 'date':

            case 'function':

                return o.toString();

                break;

            case 'string':

                return '"' + o.replace(/[\x00-\x1f\\"]/g, $replaceChars) + '"';

                break;

            case 'array':

                for (var i = 0, l = o.length; i < l; i++) {

                    s.push($.toJSON(o[i]));

                }

                return '[' + s.join(',') + ']';

                break;

            case 'error':

            case 'object':

                for (var p in o) {

                    s.push(p + ':' + $.toJSON(o[p]));

                }

                return '{' + s.join(',') + '}';

                break;

            default:

                return '';

                break;

        }

    };

    $.evalJSON = function(s) {

        if ($.type(s) != 'string' || !s.length) return null;

        return eval('(' + s + ')');

    };

})(jQuery);