[krapp]

>It's weird how languages like YAML, XML and JSON are very much designed for communication between machines, but are still the default choice for human input. Actual programming languages - designed for use by people - are rarely considered for high level configuration.

What are you talking about? YAML, XML (particularly HTML) and JSON were always intended to be written by and understood by human beings, no less so than any "programming language." All of these were designed to be "used by people" and machines.

>Actual programming languages - designed for use by people - are rarely considered for high level configuration.

And the rest of your comment illustrates why. What you have when you use a programming language for "high level configuration" isn't configuration. Configuration should describe constant state, not operate on or transform mutable state. What you have, then, is just more application layer, on top of your application.

Which you don't have with JSON. Or INI. And you do still kind of have with YAML, and definitely can with XML, but that's why a lot of people don't like YAML or XML when it gets too complex.

What it looks like your example shows is dumping unnecessary complexity into configuration in order to maintain "simplicity" in the application. You would have the exact same problem using a high level programming language, it would just be potentially infinitely worse with the explosion of complexity and feature creep that comes with it.