YAML is excellent for resource files, i.e. human editing complex data. For -configuration- you want a simpler format; INI is worth considering, as is http://p3

YAML is excellent for resource files, i.e. human editing complex data. For -configuration- you want a simpler format; INI is worth considering, as is http://p3rl.org/JSONY http://p3rl.org/JSONY which is ingy's implementation of a vision we thrashed out for a more sysadmin-friendly config format.