Patrick Maupin <pmau...@gmail.com> writes: > - There is a preexisting file format suitable for my needs, so I > should not invent another one.
There are in fact quite a few--json, yaml, .ini, xml, Python literals (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/364469-safe-eval/), s-expressions, actual Python code that the application can import, and so forth. The problem isn't that you're trying to invent a useless file format per se, but rather that in trying to get other people to learn it and use it, you're also trying to appropriate a chunk of the user community's scarce and precious brain cells without good justification. Newbie designers are often lured into that and they're unfortunately (i.e. to the community's detrimtent) often more successful than they really should be. Your one complaint about yaml is that it's slow to parse. Why do you care about the parsing speed of a config file? If the existing implementation is too slow, why not write a faster one instead of designing yayaml? Even yaml is excessive in my view. "Yet another" was an ok plan when Steve Johnson started the trope by writing Yacc 30 years ago. These days, don't do yet another without very convincing reasons for rejecting what is already there. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
