Re: proplib and the jet age

[Marc Balmer <marc%msys.ch@localhost>]

>> The chief question, therefore, is what data model the new stuff should
>> support. There are at least seven obvious candidates I can think of:
>> 
>> (a) What we have in proplib (arrays and string-keyed dictionaries)
>> only, with the explicit understanding that only tree structures are
>> supported and not graphs; that is, no dictionary or array can appear
>> more than once.
>> 
>> (b) Same as (a) but extend dictionaries to be keyable with arbitrary
>> atom types.
>> 
>> (c) A more general semistructured model, like (b) but that explicitly
>> allows graph structure without being fully graph-oriented.
>> 
>> (d) RDF, or more likely a tasteful subset of RDF with data types
>> instead of using URIs for everying. (http://www.w3.org/RDF/)
>> 
>> (e) Property graphs.
>> (https://github.com/tinkerpop/blueprints/wiki/Property-Graph-Model)
>> 
>> (f) Property graphs where property values can be tuples rather than
>> only atoms.
>> 
>> (g) Relations (tables of rows with named fields).
> 
> Let me add another option here:  Lua could be used just for that.  Lua has 
> been designed as a data description language, a fact that is obvious when you 
> look at it's fine syntax for defining tables and structuring data in general. 
>   Its easy to generate and easy to process and has far less overhead that 
> e.g. XML.

I have, in the meantime, described what it would be like to use Lua as a 
language for configuration files or to exchange data.  Lua is already used for 
this purpose, actually it emerged from a language called Sol which was created 
specifically as a data description language.

The file can be downloaded at http://www.netbsd.org/~mbalmer/lua/lua_config.pdf