Re: YAML 2.0: drop arbitrary nodes to be used as keys

I wrote a libyaml wrapper for Matlab, a language which doesn't even have a
real native mapping type (or didn't until very recently, and it's sort of
kludged on), meaning there's no native type to easily represent mappings
with scalar keys which aren't strings.  However, the most common YAML
mappings, with scalar string keys, can be naturally represented with
Matlab's struct type, and 95% of the time this is definitely what the user
wants.  I chose to provide a generic representation, where YAML mappings
are represented in Matlab as a list (cell array in Matlab parlance) of
key-value pairs, as well as a specialized representation for those mappings
which Matlab can represent as structs, and allowed the user to select which
is appropriate for the application.  This same strategy is applied for
non-scalar keys.

I think this is a more appropriate strategy for parsers in languages which
do not offer a simple native-type representation of non-scalar mappings (or
any other useful YAML feature). If your users are telling you you need to
change your YAML because they can't parse it, the problem is that their
parser is not standards-compliant, not that the full YAML spec is
impossible to implement in their language.  Any language that offers at
least nested mixed-type lists (or some other representation of a mixed-type
tree) should be able to represent any YAML document, even if that
representation is less "natural" than it would be in a different language.

Short version, don't drop useful features from YAML 2.0 just because
they're inconvenient to implement in some languages.  If it can work in the
arbitrary mess that is Matlab, it can work in your language.

Best,
Geoff

On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Andrey Somov <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Dear Osamu,
> >In YAML 1.2, the spec says
>
> Please be aware that YAML 1.2 does not really exist. It is completely
> ignored by the industry.
> Even though it was released many years ago there is still no parser which
> implements it.
>
> I only know 2 parsers which _partially_ implement YAML 1.2
>
>
> >Could you point out the importance of inter-operability
> >if I do not understand it correctly.
>
> I will try to define what is inter-operability for me (as a developer of a
> general purpose YAML parser)
>
> If I have YAML document  I can give it to anybody else.
> They apply their context, they parse it with their programming language.
> And they do not come back to me saying that I must change my YAML because
> they cannot do anything.
> The above  is valid for XML or JSON, but completely invalid for YAML.
>
> SnakeYAML issues are full with complains that users cannot work with YAML
> produced by another parser.
> Why a developer should explain to the community the deficiencies of the
> specification ?
>
> If you produce and consume YAML yourself then it works. Is it what we want
> ?
>
> Cheers,
> Andrey
>
>
>
>
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