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It's all about marketing sadly. Marketing and connections. This industry has been full of theft for years.

by tom_m 1y ago

alganet 1y ago
Some 15 years ago, I made a small configuration language: https://github.com/Respect/Config/blob/master/docs/README.md https://github.com/Respect/Config/blob/master/docs/README.md Then, two years later, toml (by a GitHub founder) appeared. It is almost an exact clone of it. https://github.com/toml-lang/toml https://github.com/toml-lang/toml -- You could say that is just a coincidence, and it's an obvious idea that anyone could have had. But then again, also around that time, a sibling component for the configuration language was featured on "The Changelog" (then, a very popular website featuring interesting projects). https://changelog.com/posts/validation-the-most-awesome-validation-engine-ever-creat https://changelog.com/posts/validation-the-most-awesome-vali... It stayed on trending PHP repositories for months. -- So, either toml was stolen or I independently invented it years prior. Don't do easy to implement DSLs kids, there's no way of licensing them.
- alganet 1y ago
  By the way, no hard feelings. The best thing that happened with my early projects was the local community I was able to help build here in Brazil. I've seen many local contributors that helped with my early projects do things well beyond what their dreamt of at the time, and I'm sure I had a positive influence on the careers of many people. All with honest, simple hard work. I am sure many people remember I did some things first, and without any investment or marketing attached to it. Just a kid, making things. To me, that is worth a lot more than VC money.
- awwright 1y ago
  Isn't that itself just a variation on the ini syntax, sort of made concrete by PHP, itself adapted from DOS? https://www.php.net/parse_ini_file https://www.php.net/parse_ini_file
  - alganet 1y ago
    Yes. I think this also supports my case. For me, it was obvious to use `parse_ini_file` because it greatly improved performance (I didn't had to parse it by hand) and familiarity (PHP users already know ini). On the other hand, there is no reason for toml to have chosen ini. Almost no other language had efficient ini parsers at the time, or any culture related to ini files whatsoever. It sounds like a strange choice outside the PHP context.
    - laurencerowe 1y ago
      Python’s built in ConfigParser has an ini like syntax and was widely used.
      - alganet 1y ago
        Fair point. It would have made sense from a python perspective also.
jasonm23 1y ago
If it weren't Alan Kay would be a household name and Jobs would've crashed out, Microsoft would've been a never been and amazing Xerox would be the tech juggernaut instead of copier washout. Truly a strange world.

It's all about marketing sadly. Marketing and connections. This industry has been full of theft for years.

by tom_m 1y ago

It's all about marketing sadly. Marketing and connections. This industry has been full of theft for years.

Some 15 years ago, I made a small configuration language: https://github.com/Respect/Config/blob/master/docs/README.md https://github.com/Respect/Config/blob/master/docs/README.md Then, two years later, toml (by a GitHub founder) appeared. It is almost an exact clone of it. https://github.com/toml-lang/toml https://github.com/toml-lang/toml -- You could say that is just a coincidence, and it's an obvious idea that anyone could have had. But then again, also around that time, a sibling component for the configuration language was featured on "The Changelog" (then, a very popular website featuring interesting projects). https://changelog.com/posts/validation-the-most-awesome-validation-engine-ever-creat https://changelog.com/posts/validation-the-most-awesome-vali... It stayed on trending PHP repositories for months. -- So, either toml was stolen or I independently invented it years prior. Don't do easy to implement DSLs kids, there's no way of licensing them.

alganet 1y ago
By the way, no hard feelings. The best thing that happened with my early projects was the local community I was able to help build here in Brazil. I've seen many local contributors that helped with my early projects do things well beyond what their dreamt of at the time, and I'm sure I had a positive influence on the careers of many people. All with honest, simple hard work. I am sure many people remember I did some things first, and without any investment or marketing attached to it. Just a kid, making things. To me, that is worth a lot more than VC money.
awwright 1y ago
Isn't that itself just a variation on the ini syntax, sort of made concrete by PHP, itself adapted from DOS? https://www.php.net/parse_ini_file https://www.php.net/parse_ini_file
- alganet 1y ago
  Yes. I think this also supports my case. For me, it was obvious to use `parse_ini_file` because it greatly improved performance (I didn't had to parse it by hand) and familiarity (PHP users already know ini). On the other hand, there is no reason for toml to have chosen ini. Almost no other language had efficient ini parsers at the time, or any culture related to ini files whatsoever. It sounds like a strange choice outside the PHP context.
  - laurencerowe 1y ago
    Python’s built in ConfigParser has an ini like syntax and was widely used.
    - alganet 1y ago
      Fair point. It would have made sense from a python perspective also.

jasonm23 1y ago

If it weren't Alan Kay would be a household name and Jobs would've crashed out, Microsoft would've been a never been and amazing Xerox would be the tech juggernaut instead of copier washout. Truly a strange world.