Metadata-Version: 2.1
Name: nestedtext
Version: 3.0.0
Summary: human readable and writable data interchange format
Home-page: https://nestedtext.org
Author: Ken Kundert and Kale Kundert
Author-email: admin@nestedtext.org
License: MIT
Download-URL: https://github.com/kenkundert/nestedtext/tarball/master
Keywords: data
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
Classifier: Natural Language :: English
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
Classifier: Topic :: Text Processing :: Markup
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
Requires-Python: >=3.6
Description-Content-Type: text/x-rst
Requires-Dist: inform (>=1.25)

NestedText: A Human Friendly Data Format
========================================

.. image:: https://pepy.tech/badge/nestedtext/month
    :target: https://pepy.tech/project/nestedtext

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/travis/KenKundert/nestedtext/master.svg
    :target: https://travis-ci.org/KenKundert/nestedtext

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/coveralls/KenKundert/nestedtext.svg
    :target: https://coveralls.io/r/KenKundert/nestedtext

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/nestedtext.svg
    :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/nestedtext

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/nestedtext.svg
    :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/nestedtext


| Authors: Ken & Kale Kundert
| Version: 3.0.0
| Released: 2021-07-17
| Documentation: `nestedtext.org <https://nestedtext.org>`_.
| Please post all questions, suggestions, and bug reports to: `Github <https://github.com/KenKundert/nestedtext/issues>`_.
|


*NestedText* is a file format for holding structured data that is to be entered, 
edited, or viewed by people.  It allows data to be organized into a nested 
collection of dictionaries, lists, and strings.  In this way it is similar to 
*JSON*, *YAML* and *TOML*, but without the complexity and risk of *YAML* and 
without the syntactic clutter of *JSON* and *TOML*.  *NestedText* is both simple 
and natural.  Only a small number of concepts and rules must be kept in mind 
when creating it.  It is easily created, modified, or viewed with a text editor 
and easily understood and used by both programmers and non-programmers.

*NestedText* is convenient for configuration files, address books, account 
information and the like.  Here is an example of a file that contains a few 
addresses:

.. code-block:: nestedtext

    # Contact information for our officers

    president:
        name: Katheryn McDaniel
        address:
            > 138 Almond Street
            > Topeka, Kansas 20697
        phone:
            cell: 1-210-555-5297
            home: 1-210-555-8470
                # Katheryn prefers that we always call her on her cell phone.
        email: KateMcD@aol.com
        additional roles:
            - board member

    vice president:
        name: Margaret Hodge
        address:
            > 2586 Marigold Lane
            > Topeka, Kansas 20682
        phone: 1-470-555-0398
        email: margaret.hodge@ku.edu
        additional roles:
            - new membership task force
            - accounting task force

    treasurer:
        -
            name: Fumiko Purvis
            address:
                > 3636 Buffalo Ave
                > Topeka, Kansas 20692
            phone: 1-268-555-0280
            email: fumiko.purvis@hotmail.com
            additional roles:
                - accounting task force
        -
            name: Merrill Eldridge
                # Fumiko's term is ending at the end of the year.
                # She will be replaced by Merrill.
            phone: 1-268-555-3602
            email: merrill.eldridge@yahoo.com

The format holds dictionaries (ordered collections of name/value pairs), lists 
(ordered collections of values) and strings (text) organized hierarchically to 
any depth.  Indentation is used to indicate the hierarchy of the data, and 
a simple natural syntax is used to distinguish the types of data in such 
a manner that needs no quoting or escaping.  Specifically, lines that begin with 
a word (or words) followed by a colon are dictionary items, lines that begin 
with a dash are list items, lines that begin with a greater-than sign are part 
of a multiline string, and lines that begin with a hash are comments and are 
ignored.  Dictionaries and lists can be nested arbitrarily.

*NestedText* is somewhat unique in that the leaf values are always strings. Of 
course the values start off as strings in the input file, but alternatives like 
*YAML* or *TOML* aggressively convert those values into the underlying data 
types such as integers, floats, and Booleans.  For example, a value like 2.10 
would be converted to a floating point number. But making the decision to do so 
based purely on the form of the value, not the context in which it is found, can 
lead to misinterpretations.  For example, assume that this value is the software 
version number two point ten. By converting it to a floating point number it 
becomes two point one, which is wrong. There are many possible versions of this 
basic issue. But there is also the inverse problem; values that should be 
converted to particular data types but are not recognized.  For example, a value 
of $2.00 should be converted to a real number but would remain a string instead.  
There are simply too many values types for a general purpose solution that is 
only looking at the values themselves to be able to interpret all of them.  For 
example, 12/10/09 is likely a date, but is it in MM/DD/YY, YY/MM/DD or DD/MM/YY 
form?  The fact is, the value alone is often insufficient to reliably determine 
how to convert values into internal data types.  *NestedText* avoids these 
problems by leaving the values in their original form and allowing the decision 
to be made by the end application where more context is available to help guide 
the conversions.  If a price is expected for a value, then $2.00 would be 
checked and converted accordingly. Similarly, local conventions along with the 
fact that a date is expected for a particular value allows 12/10/09 to be 
correctly validated and converted.  This process of validation and conversion is 
referred to as applying a schema to the data.  There are packages such as 
`Pydantic <https://pydantic-docs.helpmanual.io>`_ and `Voluptuous 
<https://github.com/alecthomas/voluptuous>`_ available that make this process 
easy and reliable.


Related Projects
----------------

`nestedtext docs <https://nestedtext.org>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
*NestedText* documentation and language specification.


`nestedtext source <https://github.com/kenkundert/nestedtext>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Source code repository for language documentation and Python implementation.
Report any issues here.


`nestedtext_tests <https://github.com/kenkundert/nestedtext_tests>`_
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Official *NestedText* test suite.  Also included as submodule in
`nestedtext <https://github.com/kenkundert/nestedtext>`_.


`parametrize from file <https://github.com/kalekundert/parametrize_from_file>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Separate your test cases, held in *NestedText*, from your `PyTest 
<https://docs.pytest.org>`_ test code.


`vim-nestedtext <https://github.com/kalekundert/vim-nestedtext>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Vim syntax files for *NestedText*.


`visual studio <https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=bmarkovic17.nestedtext>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Syntax files for *Visual Studio*.


`zig-nestedtext <https://github.com/LewisGaul/zig-nestedtext>`_
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
`Zig <https://ziglang.org>`_ implementation of *NestedText*.


Contributing
------------

This package contains a Python reference implementation of *NestedText* and 
a test suite.  Implementation in many languages is required for *NestedText* to 
catch on widely.  If you like the format, please consider contributing 
additional implementations.


