dub: JSON, SDL, YAML, TOML, what color should we paint it ?

[0xEAB]

On Tuesday, 28 February 2023 at 14:29:28 UTC, Mathias LANG wrote:
> JSON was there from the beginning, I assume due to Dub's npm 
> inspiration.

Composer uses it, too.
(It’s not like NPM and DUB were the only ones to use it for 
package recipes.)

It’s a simple and commonly understood format, widely used (mostly 
for other use cases, of course) and feels similar to program code.

I assume most users are probably already familiar with it. 
Chances that someone has to “get into” this format just to use 
DUB are pretty low.

What do other languages use for their “package” descriptions:

- Windows: Chocolatey: XML (+ JSON)
- Go.mod: custom(?)
- Java: Maven: XML
- JavaScript: Bower: JSON
- JavaScript: NPM: JSON
- .NET: NuGet: XML
- Nim: nimble: custom(?)
- PHP: Composer: JSON
- Rust: crates: TOML
- Zig: zigmod: YAML