Re: [Yaml-core] alternative notation

[Clark C. E. <cc...@cl...>]

On Sun, Sep 08, 2002 at 10:56:52AM -0700, Mike Orr wrote:
| On Sun, Sep 08, 2002 at 02:47:02PM +0000, Clark C. Evans wrote:
| >    this:  # is ambiguous, is it a scalar, mapping or sequence?
| 
| >    but   this: []  # is an empty sequence
| >    and   this: {}  # is an empty mapping
| >    so    this: ''  # is an empty string
| >    while this: ()  # is _null_ type  (currently ~ in the current spec)
| 
| What would be hurt if we assume an empty value is ''?
| Is there a legitimate reason not to type [] or {} when you
| mean an empty collection?  And since null is a special
| value (some applications never want to see a null ever),
| it follows that it should have a special syntax.

this: >
  is a scalar
and this: 
  this is a mapping: since it has a key/value pair
but what is:
  # this: with a commented out key?

In the current spec, the above is an error so that 
someone commenting out keys won't accidently turn
a mapping into a scalar.  

I hope this helps!

Clark