Sanity checking an idea for editing yaml without wanting to throw my laptop out the window

Comments

• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  What text editor are you using? In theory most should detect a yaml file and adjust their indentation behaviour appropriately. I edit yaml in VSCode and Kate and it’s never been a problem.

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  • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I use nvim for it, it works but I’d rather not have to deal with indentation in the first place

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    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well in that case, I have good news. All valid JSON is also valid yaml. It’s a superset by definition. So if you really hate yaml so much you can just write your yaml files as JSON and the parser should handle it fine. Just be aware that yaml does some more agressive typecasting when quotes are omitted, so you may need to figure out which value is actually being used when converting.

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• multifredding@feddit.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I could see some problems when working with yaml anchors, otherwise the conversion should work fine. But yeah, using a good editor should fix most problems and would be much easier

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  • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What kind of problems? I’m unfamiliar with anchors in yaml

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    • multifredding@feddit.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      They are basically constants where you can define reoccurring sections once and reference them multiple times throughout the file. A processor will then resolve these. As gar as I know, there is no comparable concept in JSON so they could get lost in translation

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• Ltcpanic@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Same bruv. I hear your cries of pain, sympathize greatly

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• eleitl@lemmy.ml ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Try neovim or something. Codium if you like GUIey things.

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  • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m using neovim. It doesn’t magically solve my problems with yaml though

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    • eleitl@lemmy.ml ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m not a power yaml user by any means, but syntax highlighting and linting pipelines do help.

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• wisplike_sustainer@suppo.fi ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  YAML to JSON is probably doable, JSON back to YAML not so much.

  There are multiple ways to mark multiline strings in YAML. Then there are anchors, like bionicjoey mentioned. Also comments, YAML has them. You’d have to have some way to retain the extra information, if you want to make the full round trip.

  Here’s an example:

  def-db: &def-db
      # here be dragons
      login: admin
      passwd: nimda
      
  prod:
      db: *def-db
      desc: |
          I'm a teapot
          short and stout
  
  dev:
      db: 
          <<: *def-db
          passwd: pass
      desc: "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"
  

  converted to JSON looks like this

  {
      "def-db": {
          "login": "admin",
          "passwd": "nimda"
      },
      "prod": {
          "db": {
              "login": "admin",
              "passwd": "nimda"
          },
          "desc": "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"
      },
      "dev": {
          "db": {
              "login": "admin",
              "passwd": "pass"
          },
          "desc": "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"
      }
  }
  

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  • 5C5C5C@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    All JSON is valid YAML, so after you’ve converted the file to JSON, just… save it with a YAML file extension and call it a day…?

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  • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Comments are an issue I’d have to think about. Would prebuilt libraries for importing/exporting data from/to these languages not handle the multiline strings for me?

    What do anchors do in yaml I’ve never heard of them before

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  • girsaysdoom@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I think the difference is that it sounds they are just looking for something JSON-like, just enough to edit and save a change. It might not be to be valid.

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    • wisplike_sustainer@suppo.fi ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      So, a new not-a-markup-language, only human readable and editable, and objectively better than its predecessor? Well, it’s all according to tradition. I believe YAML got its start the same way.

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    • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      No, I was thinking of actual JSON because it makes it easier to write a plugin (just use built in libraries to import and export configurations)

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• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I have an idea to write an editor plugin that will, when opening a yaml file, convert it to json (or some other less painful configuration language), then convert back on save. I don’t know enough about yaml syntax to know if that’s possible or if there’s some quirk that makes them not completely cross compatible

  You could probably do this pretty easily with a simple python script. Use the yaml parser to convert into a dictionary, use the JSON renderer to save that dictionary into a pipe file. Launch the visual editor of your choice on that file. When the editor exits, read the file as JSON, parse it back into a dictionary, and use the yaml renderer to save that dictionary back into the original file.

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  • flashgnash@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah that was exactly what I was thinking, and/or doing a similar thing in lua as an nvim plugin

    That said I’m not sure if neovim would support something like that

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