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I see a lot of criticism of YAML, and I’ve looked a few other minimal configuration languages like TOML as well. Serious question: why doesn’t this language sp

I see a lot of criticism of YAML, and I’ve looked a few other minimal configuration languages like TOML as well. Serious question: why doesn’t this language space have a universally adopted candidate like SQL?

skybrian 7y ago
You might as well ask why there was nothing as popular as markdown before markdown. It's just historical circumstances. JSON is pretty common, and liveable with a few conservative extensions like comment support. But the extensions haven't gained a lot of traction yet.
stickfigure 7y ago
For a brief period, it did: XML But everyone thought "that's too complex" and so reinvented something simpler. Then kept adding features, and more features, and now YAML is more complicated than XML. This process will repeat ad infinitum.
- ludamad 7y ago
  I'm fine with XML complexity, some things pay off. It remains entrenched in networking world. Some things are awkward though, like needing to introduce named fields for everything - e.g. not being able to have an XML file that is purely a list of integers, they each need some arbitrarily named field markup
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Thankfully in Java and .NET land it is still mostly about XML. It is so ironic to see these fads come and go, and then one wonders why we are so cinic regarding newcomers.
  - reallydontask 7y ago
    .net core uses json for config files
    - pjmlp 7y ago
      Still using .NET Core 1.x? One can use the XML Configuration Provider just as well.
      - reallydontask 7y ago
        > Still using .NET Core 1.x? We're on a mix of 2.2 and 3.1 where the default still is json or have i got this wrong?
        pjmlp 7y ago
        Just because it is the default, it doesn't mean it cannot be changed. I just thought that XmlConfigurationProvider wasn't in 1.x, as I avoided that crash train with multiple reboots how projects and .NET Standard was supposed to look like. So I stand corrected regarding when it was introduced.
- ignoranceprior 7y ago
  Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/

skybrian 7y ago

You might as well ask why there was nothing as popular as markdown before markdown. It's just historical circumstances. JSON is pretty common, and liveable with a few conservative extensions like comment support. But the extensions haven't gained a lot of traction yet.

stickfigure 7y ago

For a brief period, it did: XML But everyone thought "that's too complex" and so reinvented something simpler. Then kept adding features, and more features, and now YAML is more complicated than XML. This process will repeat ad infinitum.

ludamad 7y ago
I'm fine with XML complexity, some things pay off. It remains entrenched in networking world. Some things are awkward though, like needing to introduce named fields for everything - e.g. not being able to have an XML file that is purely a list of integers, they each need some arbitrarily named field markup
pjmlp 7y ago
Thankfully in Java and .NET land it is still mostly about XML. It is so ironic to see these fads come and go, and then one wonders why we are so cinic regarding newcomers.
- reallydontask 7y ago
  .net core uses json for config files
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    Still using .NET Core 1.x? One can use the XML Configuration Provider just as well.
    - reallydontask 7y ago
      > Still using .NET Core 1.x? We're on a mix of 2.2 and 3.1 where the default still is json or have i got this wrong?
      - pjmlp 7y ago
        Just because it is the default, it doesn't mean it cannot be changed. I just thought that XmlConfigurationProvider wasn't in 1.x, as I avoided that crash train with multiple reboots how projects and .NET Standard was supposed to look like. So I stand corrected regarding when it was introduced.
ignoranceprior 7y ago
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/