The language data file for highlight.js are written as JavaScript classes
and therefore may contain variables. This allows for inner references in
the language data. This kind of data can be converterd to JSON using the
path based references. This class can be used to decode such JSON
structures. It follows the conventions for path based referencing as
used in dojox.json.ref form the Dojo toolkit (Javascript). A typical
example of such a structure is as follows:

{
  "name":"Kris Zyp",
  "children":[{"name":"Jennika Zyp"},{"name":"Korban Zyp"}],
  "spouse":{
    "name":"Nicole Zyp",
    "spouse":{"$ref":"#"},
    "children":{"$ref":"#children"}
  },
  "oldestChild":{"$ref":"#children.0"}
}

Usage example:

$jr = new JsonRef();
$data = $jr->decode(file_get_contents("data.json"));
echo $data->spouse->spouse->name; // echos 'Kris Zyp'
echo $data->oldestChild->name; // echos 'Jennika Zyp'