4 ms·
If we're going to change the format, why not just use the record separator, and field separator characters. They've been around since ascii.
by dec0dedab0de 5y ago
If we're going to change the format, why not just use the record separator, and field separator characters. They've been around since ascii.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- timwis 5y agoInteresting, hadn’t heard of these! My guess is the complexity of parsing csv consistently extends a bit beyond that (e.g. handling line breaks), but the bigger problem is getting enough traction behind any solution, no matter how spot on it is, and outpacing csv. Not to mention csv is a far catchier acronym than “rssv” :P
- floatingatoll 5y agoPeople don't know how to type them on a US keyboard, so it'll never pass the "if I can't hand-write this in ed(1), it isn't a valid file format" hacker adoption barrier without someone of Google's size to force us all to adopt it (e.g. protobuf).
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoFair enough, but imagine how much easier things would have been if we had those two extra keys on our keyboards for the last 40 years.
- floatingatoll 5y agoI believe you could type it in DOS with the same trick that works today: Alt-028, though nowadays you have to say Alt-001E due to Unicode. (Actual ascii/uni codes may vary.) Perl6 tried incorporating non-US-keyboard characters into the language and that went very badly. I'm sure it works fine for Perl6 people, but beyond that boundary, I still encounter people who can't type é on a Mac with the keyboard alone today, much less handle Alt-001E. So I am extremely pessimistic.
- Zizizizz 5y agoWe actually use these as part of bulk loading CSV s into SQL server 2016 because bulk insert can't discern commas in a field with one being used as a delimiter. Pain in the ass to debug with though.