Technology

I have an idea to write an editor plugin that will, when opening a yaml file, convert it to json (or some other less painful configuration language), then convert back on save. I don't know enough about yaml syntax to know if that's possible or if there's some quirk that makes them not completely cross compatible

You could probably do this pretty easily with a simple python script. Use the yaml parser to convert into a dictionary, use the JSON renderer to save that dictionary into a pipe file. Launch the visual editor of your choice on that file. When the editor exits, read the file as JSON, parse it back into a dictionary, and use the yaml renderer to save that dictionary back into the original file.

Try neovim or something. Codium if you like GUIey things.

YAML to JSON is probably doable, JSON back to YAML not so much.

There are multiple ways to mark multiline strings in YAML. Then there are anchors, like bionicjoey mentioned. Also comments, YAML has them. You'd have to have some way to retain the extra information, if you want to make the full round trip.

Here's an example:

def-db: &def-db
    # here be dragons
    login: admin
    passwd: nimda
    
prod:
    db: *def-db
    desc: |
        I'm a teapot
        short and stout

dev:
    db: 
        <<: *def-db
        passwd: pass
    desc: "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"

converted to JSON looks like this

{
    "def-db": {
        "login": "admin",
        "passwd": "nimda"
    },
    "prod": {
        "db": {
            "login": "admin",
            "passwd": "nimda"
        },
        "desc": "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"
    },
    "dev": {
        "db": {
            "login": "admin",
            "passwd": "pass"
        },
        "desc": "I'm a teapot\nshort and stout\n"
    }
}

Same bruv. I hear your cries of pain, sympathize greatly

I could see some problems when working with yaml anchors, otherwise the conversion should work fine. But yeah, using a good editor should fix most problems and would be much easier

What text editor are you using? In theory most should detect a yaml file and adjust their indentation behaviour appropriately. I edit yaml in VSCode and Kate and it's never been a problem.