dt.py

Datatag Python Reference Implementation

What is Datatag?

Datatag is yet-another file format. The goal of which is:

1. To be quick to write.
2. To be quick to parse.
3. To be accessible to both programmers and non-programmers.

Coming from a background of game development, there's plenty of options for storing user-configurable data, but nothing that sufficiently meets the above three criteria. Datatags is a working specification that intends to solve these three issues.

Example Datatag (.dt) file

; This is a comment
a_bool: true ; This is also a comment
a_byte: 0x01
a_int: 2
a_short: 3s
a_long: 4l
a_double: 5.0
a_float: 6.0f
a_char: '7'
a_string: "eight"
a_array: [ 9 10 11 12 ]
a_object:
{
	a: 0
	b: { c: 0 }
	d: 0
	e: [1 2 3 4] ; you can nest arrays in objects
	f: [ {a: 0} {a: 1} {a: 2} {a: 3} ] ; you can nest objects in arrays
}

Types

Datatags support the following primitive types:

• booleans: Either true or false.
• bytes: A hexadecimal value, in the format 0x##.
• shorts: A regular integral (discrete) value, proceeded by a lower- or uppercase s.
• integers: A regular integral (discrete) value.
• longs: A regular integral (discrete) value, proceeded by a lower- or uppercase l.
• floats: A real number that contains a decimal point (.), proceeded by a lower- or uppercase f. Only has to contain a single digit on either side of the decimal to be understood.
• doubles: A real number that contains a decimal point (.), optionally proceeded by a lower- or uppercase d. Only has to contain a single digit on either side of the decimal to be understood.
• characters: A single character in single quotes (''), or an escaped character (escaped using \).
• strings: A line of text in double quotes (""). Double quotes used in the string must be escaped using a \.
• arrays: A list of values of another type, enclosed with square braces ([]) and seperated by whitespace.
• objects: A collection of key-value pairs, encapsulated in a single value. Objects follow the same rules as regular datatag entries, but are enclosed in curly braces ({}).