Post #2406399

2026-05-11 20:52 UTC

@rosaaeterna@transfem.social I should have elaborated more: It should absolutely be tied to a very specific format, so that everyone knows how to read and write it, but there should be more options, ideally even with the shell being able to translate between them: If one program outputs csv, and the other needs json, then the shell should do the conversion. (Obviously not all conversions are possible and there should be strict standards, but in general the idea would be to allow different formats and have the shell inform the other program of what formats it currently supports, based on what the shell itself can produce and based on what it can losslessly (or sometimes in a lossy way, if clearly indicated for example by a different path) create from the outputs of the program earlier in the pipe…

Replies (2)

@rosaaeterna@transfem.social 2026-05-11 21:01

@Fiona@blahaj.zone I just don't think the idea of mandating everyone use JSON, for example, is a good idea. I think developers should be 100% free to use YAML instead, or XML. I especially think that it's a recipe for the format in question becoming categorically outdated at some point- Say if the format has timestamps, but it only officially supports signed 32-bit unix ones. Or, as you kinda already mentioned, things that we don't need/want yet but will in the future. I think it'd be better for applications to just emit a MIME type (or similar) of what they can output, and work from there. That way we preserve freedom perfectly well, and we also make it relatively simpler to change out formats if one ends up being inherently flawed or outdated. (For the record, I love JSON and use it a ton myself, I just recognize that forcing every programmer onto a specific format is not necessarily the best)

Open ##4121824
@Fiona@blahaj.zone 2026-05-11 20:53

@rosaaeterna@transfem.social oh, wait, I just noticed that I started the outline in a parallel thread; see there for context.

Open ##4121825