YAML was intended to be a superset, but it isn't quite, which is about the worst case scenario. See https://metacpan.org/pod/JSON::XS#JSON-and-YAML , for instance.
(I am an absolutist on this matter. To be a superset, all, that's A L L valid JSON strings must also be valid YAML to be a superset. A single failure makes it not a superset. At scale, any difference will eventually occur, which is why even small deviations matter.)
For example, this valid JSON doesn't parse as YAML:
{
"list": [
{},
{}
]
}
edit: whitespace didn't quite make it through HN, here:
json.loads('{\n "list": [\n {},\n\t{}\n ]\n}')
yaml.load ('{\n "list": [\n {},\n\t{}\n ]\n}')Python's .netrc library also hasn't supported comments correctly for like 5 years. The bug was reported, it was never fixed. If I want to use my .netrc file with Python programs, I have to remove all comments (that work with every other .netrc-using program).
It's 2022 and we can't even get a plaintext configuration format from 1980 right.
> It's 2022 and we can't even get a plaintext configuration format from 1980 right.
To me, it's more depressing that we've been at this for 50-60 years and still seemingly don't have an unambiguously good plaintext configuration format at all.
toml is pretty much the best one I have seen so far. At least for small to medium size config files.
Toml has some hairy bits. Lists of objects, lists of lists of objects, objects of lists of objects. Complex objects with top level fields...
Yep,
Although I do feel like there is a case to be made that if you need a Turing complete configuration language then in most cases you failed your users by pushing too many decisions on to them instead of deciding on sensible defaults.
And if you are dealing with one of the rare cases where Turing complete configuration is desirable then maybe use Lua or something like that instead.
I'm not defending YAML. YAML is terrible. It's even worse with logic and/or templates (looking at you, Ansible). Toml is certainly better but I'm still baffled as to why we don't have a "better YAML". YAML could almost be okay.