XML Output: libxo - provide single API to output TXT, XML, JSON and HTML

[Jordan Hubbard]

On Jul 27, 2014, at 11:06 PM, Jos Backus <jos at catnook.com> wrote:

> It would be great if libyaml and libucl would converge, but instead it's
> likely that the number of solutions trying to solve the same problem will
> continue to proliferate, and we are stuck with more and more configuration
> file formats :-(

I’m a huge fan of unified data formats; Apple picked XML and the plist DTD a long time ago, a decision which has worked rather nicely in practice, but I’m more in love with the unification that produced than I am in love with XML itself.  That said, it seems like this late push for YAML is a similar case for divergence just because…erm… you don’t like JSON?  It seems like libucl has basically backed JSON with the addition of a little syntactic sugar, so what’s wrong with that?

Is there some reason JSON is not sufficient?  I think that’s a better question to ask, since the conversation otherwise quickly tends to sound a little like “I’ll accept any single unified format as long as it’s the specific one I like!” :)   I think the greater good argument would suggest just picking one that’s expressive enough (roll a pair of dice), put on your bikeshed-proof sunglasses, and proceed.

- Jordan