ModCFG

YEs, another configuration language

A whitespace-sensitive configuration language and data format.

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Seriously, how many configuration languages do we have? From the top of my head, I can only name:

• JSON
• YAML
• INI
• TOML
• XML

Hmmm... that's it I think. wE NeEd MOrE cOnfIGURaTion LanGuaGEs!!1!1!!

But actually though

I originally based this off of the Ruby/DSL for homebrew formulas.

Here are my complaints for the alternatives:

• JSON, while simple, isn't too readable and only has the bear minimum of datatypes. That may be a feature for some people, though.
• YAML is dangerous. And unpredictable.
• INI and TOML are quite similar and they both are quite nice with a lot of datatypes but, in my opinion, the format isn't as natural to read as YAML. TOML supports dates and datetime, though.
• Finally, XML is garbage. It's barely human-readable and can decode into a super wonky format. So no.

Finally, I just wanted an excuse to play with Lark.

Features

• Enums with a built-in resolver
• Date time and Date support
• YAML-like syntax
• Support for comments, unicode escape sequences, string modifications, and cleanly managed indented strings

Examples

Given this modcfg document:

module hello_world:
    hello => world
    this: "also works"
    'single quotes' = "equals double quotes"
    how -> {
            about: {
                some:
                    - very
                    - crazy
                    - data:
                        structures = o_0
            }
        }

and this python script:

import modcfg
modcfg.loads(DOC)  # `DOC` is the document above

The output is

[
    Module(
        name="hello_world",
        contents=[
            {
                "hello": "world",
                "this": "also works",
                "single quotes": "equals double quotes",
                "how": {
                    "about": {
                        "some": ["very", "crazy", {"data": {"structures": "o_0"}}]
                    }
                },
            }
        ],
    )
]

Crazy, right? It gets better with enums and date(time)s... You might as well read the whole documentation.

Installation

$ pip install modcfg

Develop-install

The classic method:

$ git clone https://github.com/ThatXliner/modcfg.git
$ cd modcfg
$ python3 -m venv .venv
$ source .venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -e .

The best method (requires Poetry):

$ git clone https://github.com/ThatXliner/modcfg.git
$ cd modcfg
$ poetry install

FAQ

Why did you make this

Lark is epic.

Why the name?

Modular Configuration language.