PBS 168 – Introduction to YAML

In Programming By Stealth, we’ve completed our series on the jq language and now Bart Busschots brings us a two-part miniseries about the YAML data format. He takes us through the history of data formats we’ve “enjoyed” such as fixed-width text files, Comma Separated Value files, through to JSON and XML. All of them had their place in history but also had their downsides. YAML promises to be human-readable (yay) and computer-readable (also yay.) Once we’re bought into how YAML is the data format of our dreams, Bart explains that there are only two kinds of data, scalar,s and collections, and that collections can be sequences or mapping and all of these data types go into a document. Luckily this is all of the jargon we’ll have to learn and there are useful synonyms from other languages (e.g. sequences are really just arrays). I found this lesson enjoyable and not too hard on my little brain so I suspect you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. You can find Bart’s fabulous tutorial shownotes at pbs.bartificer.net. Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: CCATP_2024_06_22 (https://podfeet.com/transcripts/CCATP_2024_06_22.html)