from Hacker News

CONL: "Markdown" for your config files

by Timothee on 4/26/25, 3:31 PM with 10 comments

• by eichin on 4/26/25, 9:23 PM

  As a python and markdown user, the triple-quoted strings never ending bugs me, or am I misreading the examples?

• by mubou on 4/26/25, 4:52 PM

  > types are deferred until parse time; the app knows what it wants.

  Thank you! Types have no business in a configuration format when the app already has a defined schema. Most formats try to convey all of the information needed to reconstruct an object, but that's totally unnecessary and only serves to complicate the syntax and introduce unnecessary errors/mishandlings.

  Are there any other config syntaxes that do this? Besides ad-hoc INI, that is.

• by epage on 4/26/25, 10:52 PM

  Looking at some of the examples, I don't feel like I can interpret how some of the strings are suppose to work. I feel like this is a flaw with over-emphasizing Postel's Law.

  Also, while indentation "works" for Python, the ratio of different levels per line is low while YAML it is high and I'm not a fan. I'd want to see a more complex example to have a real feel for this.

• by 3eb7988a1663 on 4/26/25, 8:30 PM

    ; Quoting is rarely required. Keys and values can contain pretty
    ; much any character except ; (and = for keys).
    spaced out key = value with = signs and "quotes"!
  

  That one makes my spider sense tingle, but it does seem elegant at making it easier to write.

• by edoceo on 4/26/25, 8:26 PM

  Would have like # or // as the comment. The issues raised about them (URLs) are solved in other tooling by rules like first chars on their own line to comment.

• by sebazzz on 4/27/25, 11:51 AM

  I applaud any new format, but it will unfortunately never gain traction unless it is adopted in one of the big tech SDKs first.