NOTE: this is a sketch

jevkoconfig1.js

Codename Jevko Config 1.

A Jevko format for configuration that decodes this:

This is a comment

title [jevkoconfig1 Example]

[owner]
name [tester]
dob `''2020-08-05T20:30:01+09:00[Asia/Tokyo][u-ca=japanese]''

[database]
enabled [true]
quoted ['true]
ports [
  [8000]
  [8001]
  [8002]
]
data [ [[delta] [phi]] [3.14] ]
temp targets [ cpu [79.5] case [72.0] ]

[servers]

-`''section path relative to previous section (like [.alpha] in ini):''
[./[alpha]]
ip [10.0.0.1]
role [frontend]

-`''absolute section path (like [servers.beta] in ini):''
[[servers][beta]]
ip [10.0.0.2]
role [backend]

-discarded key [[with][a][value]]
-[discarded section]
this key now goes under [[servers][beta]]

[embedded documents]
some json `'json'
{ 
  "id": "b3df0d",
  "count": 55,
  "props": {
    "return code": "59503a7b",
    "status": "pending"
  },
  "associated ids": [
    "3adf7c",
    "ff0df7",
    "3aa670"
  ],
  "parent": null 
}
'json'
more json `'json'55'json'
json string `'json'"\n\tsomething\u0000"'json'
json array `'json'[1, 2, 3, 4, null]'json'

into this:

{
  "title": "jevkoconfig1 Example",
  "owner": {
    "name": "tester",
    "dob": "2020-08-05T20:30:01+09:00[Asia/Tokyo][u-ca=japanese]"
  },
  "database": {
    "enabled": true,
    "quoted": "true",
    "ports": [
      8000,
      8001,
      8002
    ],
    "data": [
      [
        "delta",
        "phi"
      ],
      3.14
    ],
    "temp targets": {
      "cpu": 79.5,
      "case": 72
    }
  },
  "servers": {
    "alpha": {
      "ip": "10.0.0.1",
      "role": "frontend"
    },
    "beta": {
      "ip": "10.0.0.2",
      "role": "backend",
      "this key now goes under": [
        "servers",
        "beta"
      ]
    }
  },
  "embedded documents": {
    "some json": {
      "id": "b3df0d",
      "count": 55,
      "props": {
        "return code": "59503a7b",
        "status": "pending"
      },
      "associated ids": [
        "3adf7c",
        "ff0df7",
        "3aa670"
      ],
      "parent": null
    },
    "more json": 55,
    "json string": "\n\tsomething\u0000",
    "json array": [
      1,
      2,
      3,
      4,
      null
    ]
  }
}

The example is based on the one from TOML's homepage.

Jevko Config 1 is similar to INI or TOML, but simpler and more flexible than both.

It recognizes the following primitive values:

• true and false (booleans)
• numbers, e.g. 999.99 -- parsed as according to Ecma262 grammar -- Infinity and NaN are supported
• null
• map means an empty map {}
• list means an empty list []
• '<anything> or '<anything>' means that <anything> is meant to be a string, e.g. 'true or 'true' is "true"
• anything unrecognized is interpreted as a string and autotrimmed

Heredocs

Heredoc strings are supported like this:

<key> `'<tag>'.............'<tag>'

<tag> is any user-defined delimiting identifier, can be empty.

Example:

dob `''2020-08-05T20:30:01+09:00[Asia/Tokyo][u-ca=japanese]''

parses to:

{
  "dob": "2020-08-05T20:30:01+09:00[Asia/Tokyo][u-ca=japanese]"
}

All strings (not just heredocs) may be multiline.

Comments

This is a multiline
comment that precedes
a key [with a value]

parses to:

{
  "a key": "with a value"
}

Also:

array [
  Comment for the
  frist value of an array
  [1]
  Comment for the
  second value
  [2]
]

parses to:

{
  "array": [1, 2]
}

i.e. all lines that precede a line with an opening bracket [ are ignored.

Keys cannot be multiline, but may contain embedded spaces.

Concatenation

Multiple Jevko Config 1 files concatenated together will be shallow-merged: two occurences of section [A] will be treated as one occurence, entries with same keys that come last will overwrite entries that come before.

[A]
key [value]
key2 [value2]

[A]
key [value3]
key3 [value4]

parses to:

{ 
  A: { 
    key: "value3", 
    key2: "value2", 
    key3: "value4" 
  } 
}

However duplicate keys in maps outside of top-level are forbidden.

Note:

top [1]

[section]
key [2]

concatenated with:

top2 [10]

[section2]
key2 [20]

produces:

top [1]

[section]
key [2]
top2 [10]

[section2]
key2 [20]

i.e. top2 from the second file goes under [section].

This is most likely not desirable, so it's best not to use keys without a section.

TODO: perhaps forbid global keys.

Data URLs

TODO: perhaps support something like Data URLs:

data:[<mediatype>][;base64],<data>

in particular base64-encoded binary data.

base64:<binary data>

Embedded JSON

JSON values can be embedded in Jevko Config 1 as follows:

json object `'json'
{ 
  "id": "b3df0d",
  "count": 55
}
'json'
json number `'json'55'json'
json string `'json'"\n\tsomething\u0000"'json'
json array `'json'[1, 2, 3, 4, null]'json'

This will parse to:

{
  "json object": { 
    "id": "b3df0d",
    "count": 55
  },
  "json number": 55,
  "json string": "\n\tsomething\u0000",
  "json array": [
    1,
    2,
    3,
    4,
    null
  ]
}