kylejlin / yscl

A simple, readable config lang for when JSON or YML is overkill. "yscl" rhymes with "Haskell."

Yet Another Simple Config Language (YSCL)

YSCL (rhymes with "Haskell" and "rascal") is a simple config language that anyone can learn in five minutes.

It's focus is on extreme simplicity and readability.

Example:

package.yscl:

name = "hangman"
version = "1.0.0"
dependencies = {
    random = "2.0.4"
    left_pad = "1.2.0"
}
licenses = [
    "MIT"
    "APACHE-2.0"
    {
        name = "Custom license"
        url = "https://github.com/kyljelin/nonexistent_repo/dummy_url.txt"
    }
]

Why YSCL?

It's simple, readable, and quick to learn.

Of course, that can also be said of its competitors, so here are some comparisons:

vs. JSON

• JSON requires the entire file be enclosed in {}
  • This effectively forces the indentation to start off at 1 indent (in contrast to TOML or YML which start at 0 indents).
  • YSCL doesn't require this.
• JSON requires keys to be enclosed with "", which is ugly.
  • YSCL doesn't require this.
• JSON has 4 atomic types (string, number, boolean, null).
  • YSCL has 1 (string).
  • Less types mean less checks. For example, in JavaScript, this allows you to simply write x.endsWith(".xml") instead of the more cumbersome typeof x === "string" && x.endsWith("xml").

vs. YML

• YSCL is much simpler than YML
  • This admittedly is a weakness in certain domains, such as in CI scripting (YML's block strings are great for writing inline code)
  • However, it drastically reduces the amount of cases you need to check.

Learn

Please read CRASH_COURSE.md.

Parser implementations

• Rust: yscl-rs
• Other languages: coming soon...hopefully. It depends on demand.
  • If you're interested, please open an issue, and I can write a port in your desired language, assuming it's a reasonably common language (sorry, I'm not writing a LOLCODE port--but feel free to do so yourself)
• Even better, you can implement a parser yourself!
  • If you open an issue, I will add your parser to this list of implementations.
  • I will also add you to the contributors list (which currently doesn't exist since it's just me 😆).