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YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)

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Re: YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)

#6
With YAML I can never remember what's an object versus a list, string, or number, nor am I ever able to add new stuff to a YAML file and get it to parse correctly without first looking up the spec. And it's impossible to see where large objects start and end.

In contrast, JSON is super intuitive and basically self documenting. The only real quirks are that you need to use double quotes, and objects can't have a trailing comma.

The only good thing I can see about YAML is that it's super easy to convert and re-export to JSON.

Re: YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)

#7
post #2

We've spent like 10 years trying to fill in gaps left when we all decided to hate XML. JSON is great as a lightweight DIF between trusted partners. If you care about maintenance and safety, XML with XSD is rock solid.

XML isn't bad, but everyone went crazy and decided to use it for everything which didn't work out well. Then the backlash happened.

Re: YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)

#8
post #2

We've spent like 10 years trying to fill in gaps left when we all decided to hate XML. JSON is great as a lightweight DIF between trusted partners. If you care about maintenance and safety, XML with XSD is rock solid.

XML is in that odd middle-ground where it's usually human-readable, but also a huge pain in the ass to write. It's great at what it was intended for, as a data interchange format.

For a general-purpose human-writable structured data format, I guess the ugly nonstandard hack that is "JSON with comments" is probably good. It's certainly faster to parse than YAML.

Re: YAML: probably not so great after all (2017)

#9
post #2

We've spent like 10 years trying to fill in gaps left when we all decided to hate XML. JSON is great as a lightweight DIF between trusted partners. If you care about maintenance and safety, XML with XSD is rock solid.

My biggest complaint with JSON is the lack of support for comments. For that reason, it's hard to take it seriously for human-maintained configurations.
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