<p>I've been using PHP for too long, but I'm new to JavaScript integration in some places. </p>

<p>I'm trying to find the fastest way to pass database information into a page where it can be modified and displayed dynamically in JavaScript. </p>

<p>Right now, I'm looking at loading a <em>JSON with PHP</em> echo statements because it's fast and effective, but I saw that I could use PHP's JSON library (PHP 5.2). </p>

<p><strong>Has anybody tried the new JSON library, and is it better than my earlier method?</strong></p>

Use the library. If you try to generate it manually, I predict with 99% certainty that the resulting text will be invalid in some way. Especially with more esoteric features like Unicode strings or exponential notation.