3d ago

there's no escape! brew another cup!

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We'd rather re-create reality where we know everything rather than taking the time to learn how to use a system someone else wrote.
IT and DevOPS does this too.
I worked with a group once that re-invented XML so that non-technical people could create text-based rules instead of writing code. But it ended up with a somewhat rigid naming structure with control characters and delimiters. The non technical people hated it more the actual XML they had used prior.
- You're talking about YAML? /s
  
  LOL. not far off
  They started out with something close to YAML. As the project moved forward, they found out they needed to represent logic with interlinked sections. They needed section 3, point a to link back to section 1 point 3, sub point 2. So they toyed with some assembly-like operations. Then they needed some inheritance. They really just slowly re-implemented the common applications of xml one at a time, it just had less brackets and <> symbols when they were done.
  
  it just had less brackets and <> symbols when they were done.
  Hence making the parser more inefficient than XML?
  
  It wasn't without some advantage. The client hating it didn't bode well though
  
  The client hating it just means you're smarter than them and should press on to help them outgrow their ignorance. It's a good sign.
  
  YAML definitely felt less intimidating to me than XML, when I first saw them.
  But the YAML examples also had much less information in them than the XML ones.
  But not having to type all those brackets definitely helps. In case of XML, I am always looking to just get a GUI going for it instead, because typing it out feels cumbersome (I'm from C++)
- Re: the not-XML-instead-of-code thing. Eventually, this sort of thing turns into a programming language. It's just like carcinisation. Or you wind up writing ever-more code to support the original design. The environment inevitably creates evolutionary pressure that only if/else and iteration logic can solve, forcing the design ever closer to being Turing-complete.
- I woulda tried them on JSON. As long as they use an editor that keeps track of nested brackets I think it's much more natural than XML.
  
  I switched to TOML for my stuff.
  
  Wow, I never even heard of TOML. Very interesting - thanks!
  edit: after looking at it a bit I think I'll actually try using it. But I find it ironic that the website for something billed as "for humans" and "easy to read" is done in light gray text on a white background. The CSS class they chose is even called "light gray" LOL.

142 comments