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Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes

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  Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes moogyd@yahoo.co.uk - 2012-10-12 07:09 -0700
    Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes Kwpolska <kwpolska@gmail.com> - 2012-10-12 16:14 +0200
    Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes Roel Schroeven <roel@roelschroeven.net> - 2012-10-12 19:27 +0200
    Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org> - 2012-10-12 13:52 -0400
    Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2012-10-12 20:03 -0400
      Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-10-12 20:30 -0700
    Re: Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes moogyd@yahoo.co.uk - 2012-10-14 22:48 -0700

#31162 — Basic JSON question: Do I really need the quotes

Hi,
I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
Internally, the data will be stored as a dict, which contains various properties related to a design
e.g. Design Name, dependencies, lists of files (and associated libraries).
json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
Anyway, in simple terms my question - if I know everything is a string, how can I omit the quotation marks?

i.e. I can do

>>> json.loads('{"mykey":["data0", "data1"]}')
{u'mykey': [u'data0', u'data1']}

But I would like to do
>>> json.loads('{mykey:[data0, data1]}')
Traceback (most recent call last):

The problem is that I don't want to make users have to type redundant characters.
Is it possible?
Thanks,
Steven

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#31163

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:09 PM,  <moogyd@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
> I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> Internally, the data will be stored as a dict, which contains various properties related to a design
> e.g. Design Name, dependencies, lists of files (and associated libraries).
> json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
> Anyway, in simple terms my question - if I know everything is a string, how can I omit the quotation marks?

Nope.  JSON has those rules for a reason.  You need to be specific.  A
more “human-friendly” format is the one used by ConfigParser (close to
INI, but not quite).

Also, JSON is supposed to be generated by computers, not humans.
-- 
Kwpolska <http://kwpolska.tk>
stop html mail      | always bottom-post
www.asciiribbon.org | www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
GPG KEY: 5EAAEA16

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#31169

moogyd@yahoo.co.uk schreef:
> Hi,
> I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> Internally, the data will be stored as a dict, which contains various properties related to a design
> e.g. Design Name, dependencies, lists of files (and associated libraries).
> json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
> Anyway, in simple terms my question - if I know everything is a string, how can I omit the quotation marks?
> 
> The problem is that I don't want to make users have to type redundant characters.
> Is it possible?

Not in JSON. Maybe you could try YAML?

-- 
"Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all
facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. Too often we enjoy the
comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
         -- John F Kennedy

roel@roelschroeven.net

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#31174

On Fri, 2012-10-12 at 19:27 +0200, Roel Schroeven wrote:
> moogyd@yahoo.co.uk schreef:
> > Hi,
> > I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> > Internally, the data will be stored as a dict, which contains various properties related to a design
> > e.g. Design Name, dependencies, lists of files (and associated libraries).
> > json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
> > Ayway, in simple terms my question - if I know everything is a string, how can I omit the quotation marks?
> > The problem is that I don't want to make users have to type redundant characters.
> > Is it possible?
> Not in JSON. Maybe you could try YAML?

If you want a human-readable human-editable markup for data structures I
strongly encourage you to look at YAML.  JSON is not wetware friendly.

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#31177

In article <cbd2f125-38ca-4f46-9077-95de0cf7ea6f@googlegroups.com>,
 moogyd@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> [...]
> json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this

JSON would not be my first choice for a file which needs to be 
maintained by hand.

I've only recently started using a system that has YAML config files.  
I've quickly become enamored of the format for config files.  I don't 
know if it's capable of expressing everything you can with JSON, but it 
certainly can do anything you would reasonably want to put in a config 
file, it's easy to read, and easy to hand-edit.

> The problem is that I don't want to make users have to type redundant 
> characters.

I think what you're saying is, "My users would prefer YAML over JSON" :-)

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#31183

On Oct 13, 5:03 am, Roy Smith <r...@panix.com> wrote:
> In article <cbd2f125-38ca-4f46-9077-95de0cf7ea6f@googlegroups.com>,
>
>  moo...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> > [...]
> > json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
>
> JSON would not be my first choice for a file which needs to be
> maintained by hand.
>
> I've only recently started using a system that has YAML config files.
> I've quickly become enamored of the format for config files.  I don't
> know if it's capable of expressing everything you can with JSON, but it
> certainly can do anything you would reasonably want to put in a config
> file, it's easy to read, and easy to hand-edit.

Yaml is a superset of json http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML#JSON

I find it a bit mysterious: yaml's structure-via-indentation
philosophy makes it more in line with python than most other modern
languages. And yet its the ruby community that seems to most eagerly
embrace yaml. Specially ironic given that ruby's syntax is reminiscent
of Pascal -- statements dont just close with '}' but with 'end'

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#31284

On Friday, 12 October 2012 16:09:14 UTC+2, (unknown)  wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I need to define some configuration in a file that will be manually created.
> 
> Internally, the data will be stored as a dict, which contains various properties related to a design
> 
> e.g. Design Name, dependencies, lists of files (and associated libraries).
> 
> json seemed a quick an easy way of achieving this
> 
> Anyway, in simple terms my question - if I know everything is a string, how can I omit the quotation marks?
> 
> 
> 
> i.e. I can do
> 
> 
> 
> >>> json.loads('{"mykey":["data0", "data1"]}')
> 
> {u'mykey': [u'data0', u'data1']}
> 
> 
> 
> But I would like to do
> 
> >>> json.loads('{mykey:[data0, data1]}')
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> 
> 
> 
> The problem is that I don't want to make users have to type redundant characters.
> 
> Is it possible?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steven

Hi,
Thanks to everyone for the responses. I'll look at YAML and ConfigParser.
Steven

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