Hyprland 0.55 announced the switch to Lua for its config files

Post by eviks » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 8:08 AM UTC

tombert wrote: post #6

I have grown pretty negative opinions of “using a programming language as a config language” after semi-recently having to spend a lot of time screwing around with someone’s Gradle Groovy abomination. Not even to mention how quickly Nix can get annoying. I have to ask…why do people want a Turing complete language to configure stuff? I use Sway personally, which is very configurable but for any even remotely complicat…

Post by eviks » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 8:21 AM UTC

dlt713705 wrote: post #95

mickeyp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don't like using programming languages as config languages, so you: 1. Use a declarative-style format for config, which is fine, I guess; 2. ... and when that inevitably fails, you... use a programming language? Some people -- not all, but some -- may prefer to skip the first step and go straight for the second option. Particularly if it's a complex thing indeed like a build system and not, y'know, configuring…

> 2. ... and when that inevitably fails, you... use a programming language? Maybe it fails because you are trying to solve a problem with a configuration when it should be solved by a function implemented in the program you are trying to use.

Post by eviks » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

retrochameleon wrote: post #113

Uggghhh, I hate Lua. I hate the syntax, everything being tables, and.... dun dun dun 1-indexed arrays. I wish we wouldn't keep going back to it. I understand the appeal for some use cases, but pleeeeeeease can we just move on to a new language that fulfills the same use cases but with more typical conventions?

Post by WhyNotHugo » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 8:46 AM UTC

eviks wrote: post #124

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call KDL "established"; it's honestly pretty niche. It looks _similar_ to pre-existing configuration formats, but KDL is very picky about syntax. I.e.: single word string MUST be quoted. In this same space, https://codeberg.org/emersion/scfg/ is pretty widely used. The curious thing about scfg is that it's not really a "new" format: the syntax described has been in use by different tools for decades. They…

> picky about syntax. I.e.: single word string MUST be quoted. Seems like the opposite: Example from kdl website without quotes package { name my-pkg Example from scfg with quotes train "Shinkansen" {

Post by nickjj » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 11:28 AM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #105

nickjj wrote: post #81

It's neat that Hyprland lets you define layouts in its config but I like niri's approach. It uses KDL (an established document / config language) and slightly extends it to add useful things like being able to include files. For example, here's mine: https://github.com/nickjj/dotfriedrice/blob/master/.config/n... What you end up with is a config file that's natural to read with no prior knowledge about anything and i…

I wouldn't call KDL "established"; it's honestly pretty niche. It looks _similar_ to pre-existing configuration formats, but KDL is very picky about syntax. I.e.: single word string MUST be quoted. In this same space, https://codeberg.org/emersion/scfg/ is pretty widely used. The curious thing about scfg is that it's not really a "new" format: the syntax described has been in use by different tools for decades. They…

    $ niri validate
    Error:   × error loading config
      ├─▶ error parsing
      ╰─▶ error parsing KDL

    Error:   × identifiers cannot be used as arguments
        ╭─[config.kdl:42:1]
     42 │         // Disable acceleration.
     43 │         accel-profile flat
        ·                       ──┬─
        ·                         ╰── unexpected identifier
     44 │     }
        ╰────
      help: consider enclosing in double quotes ".."