I agree. YAML is the nicest looking thing for config files I’ve seen. In that context, neither XML nor JSON would be acceptable alternatives to me (and no-one has suggested anything else).

I’ll have to take a look at your Config::Tree::YAML* modules. Thanks for pointing them out.

I don’t put code in YAML, but I encounter this “foo based on bar” problem often. My Config::Tree::YAMLHashDir module is one way I do it, by putting several hashes on a single YAML or separate YAML files, and then merging them together to get the final result.

Where did you get the idea that YAML is dead? Do you have links or other evidence? I did a google search on YAML is dead. None of the links on the first page talked about YAML begin dead.

And I think that perhaps you and I have a different definition of code (aside from the fact I’m a sometime Lisper – code *is* data). Trivial variable interpolation does not, code make. And what is your alternative?

Whether you like YAML or not, it’s effectively dead and gone. Accept this reality and forget it.

As for the YAML at the start of the article, it’s really looks like the intention is to write code in YAML. Bad idea. See also XSL.

One of the myriad of problems is the other code is required to compensate for all the things YAML can’t do. So why put a little bit of code in YAML in the first place?

And so on…

Yes, I think it is worth learning YAML, or JSON or some other configuration language. XML is too painful and evalling perl data structures is a bit suspect

Has anybody, anywhere, ever figured out a good place to put database passwords?

Yes – keep it in your head

But more seriously, it would be better to use some kind of authentication mechanism such as SASL and then grant tickets (like perforce does) or maybe even a full-blooded authenticating / ticketing system such as Kerberos.

“Please note I’m not advocating putting plaintext passwords in a config file – that is generally a bad idea.”

Has anybody, anywhere, ever figured out a good place to put database passwords?