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0 pointsalanh10y ago0 comments

YAML is more complex that most people tend to realize. (This was brought up in a 2011 discussion about possibly standardizing a metadata section for Markdown documents which sadly went nowhere. [1])

Take a look at example 2.11 in the YAML spec [2], for example, and see if you can make heads or tails of it.

[1]: https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/2011-A...

[2]: http://www.yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2760395

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4 comments · 2 top-level

crdoconnor10y ago· 2 in thread

You don't need most of those features. A pared down YAML with the cruft removed (implicit typing, flow style, tag tokens, node anchor & references) is actually pretty simple as well as less "gotcha-y".

__david__10y ago

Sure, but most language YAML parsers support all or most of the spec. That can be a problem if you aren't expecting it.

alanhOP10y ago

I believe it has even created security issues. Didn’t Rails have at least one YAML-based vuln?

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detaro10y ago

pyYAML has this collection of problems with the spec: http://pyyaml.org/wiki/BugsInTheYAMLSpecification

(and pyYAML itself can't always parse its own output correctly...)

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