Is NEON a Better YAML?
######################

:category:  Misc
:tags:      yaml, neon
:date:      2020-05-29 06:18:00 +0300
:updated:   2020-06-15 22:18:00 +0300

.. _NEON: https://ne-on.org/
.. _Nette Framework: https://nette.org/
.. _PHPStan: https://phpstan.org/

Short answer: NO. If you know what I mean.

.. TEASER_END

It seems that YAML's drawbacks have created a niche for alternative better YAMLs.
NEON_ is developed as a part of the `Nette Framework`_ and also gained some popularity as a format for PHPStan_ configs.
But is it a better YAML?

Well, `YAML's Norway Problem`__...

.. __: https://medium.com/@lefloh/lessons-learned-about-yaml-and-norway-13ba26df680

.. code-block:: yaml

    country_names:
        DK: Denmark
        NO: Norway  # this works ok
        SE: Sweden
    scandinavia:
        - DK
        - NO        # but this is still false
        - SE

... check.

Weird but valid PHP specific syntax:

.. code-block:: yaml

    # this hash&array mixture is common in PHP world but meaningless in other languages
    # also it's impossible in yaml
    php_array:
        - 1
        - 2
        - 3
        four: 4
        five: 5
        six: 6

becomes

.. code-block:: json

    {
        "php_array": {
            "0": 1,
            "1": 2,
            "2": 3,
            "four": 4,
            "five": 5,
            "six": 6
        }
    }

... check.

Okay, maybe its weird killer feature, entities, is useful for somebody but the rest of the language looks like a worse YAML to me.

**Update (2020-06-15):**

Weirdly significant whitespace:

.. code-block:: yaml

    # compare to the example above
    # this will work exactly like yaml and produce exactly what's expected
    php_array:
    - 1
    - 2
    - 3
    four: 4
    five: 5
    six: 6

becomes

.. code-block:: json

    {
        "php_array": [
            1,
            2,
            3
        ],
        "four": 4,
        "five": 5,
        "six": 6
    }

... WTF? I mean, this is fine and logical but it makes the previous example even worse.