Before we implement SDL package format for DUB

[Jonathan Marler via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 27 August 2014 at 12:25:43 UTC, Gary Willoughby 
wrote:
> On Wednesday, 27 August 2014 at 10:51:28 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
> wrote:
>> I just had an "epiphany".  I believe that if I added 
>> attributes to ASON, it would be a true superset of SDL.  
>> Meaning any SDL file would also be a valid ASON file.  What 
>> kind of monster did I create!  I accidently created a language 
>> that serves as both a superset of JSON and SDL?  I didn't 
>> think that would be possible, expecially with such a little 
>> amount of extensions to JSON.
>
> Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, 
> but when there is nothing left to take away.
> - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

On Wednesday, 27 August 2014 at 12:25:43 UTC, Gary Willoughby 
wrote:
> On Wednesday, 27 August 2014 at 10:51:28 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
> wrote:
>> I just had an "epiphany".  I believe that if I added 
>> attributes to ASON, it would be a true superset of SDL.  
>> Meaning any SDL file would also be a valid ASON file.  What 
>> kind of monster did I create!  I accidently created a language 
>> that serves as both a superset of JSON and SDL?  I didn't 
>> think that would be possible, expecially with such a little 
>> amount of extensions to JSON.
>
> Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, 
> but when there is nothing left to take away.
> - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Nice quote, but unfortunately there's no such thing as a perfect 
programming language or a perfect data format.  JSON is dirt 
simple and popular.  However using strict JSON for build 
configuration prevents users from commenting out sections 
temporarily, and also rejects text that can be understood by a 
human but doesn't follow JSON's strict rules.  It also becomes 
very unwieldy when any amount of nesting is involved.  Then 
again, when you start writing data formats that are easier to 
write for humans, you start getting complicated.

IMO, ASON has a nice balance between being very simple and very 
nice for humans to write/maintain.  I also think there are some 
JSON variants that do the same thing, json5 looks nice, but it 
doesn't support the SingularName feature that ASON does which 
would fix the nesting issue.