| I think that depends on how complex the config can get, and how it is used. For example package.json in NPM packages -> that feels like a good fit for JSON (although it would be even better if JSON had comments). On the other hand, terraform, or build languages like Make or Meson -> they are complex enough that it probably makes sense to have a standalone DSL. I was facing the same decision recently on my project while designing a declarative DSL for web app development (kind of like web framework).
From simplest to most complex option: - should I just let them define it all in JSON? There would be a lot of repetition at some point and it would become impractical, but it could be ok for the start. - should I just implement JS library, that devs can use in JS to construct a config object that is then exported to JSON? That would be embedded DSL. Sounds flexible and easy to do, but it is also overly expressive and not "cool" (ok this is debatable). - should I use something like Dhall? It is declarative and simple. - should I come up with my own declarative, configuration-like DSL? It would probably end up similar to Dhall, but this means I can do whatever I want - I can make it as ergonomic and custom as I want to (which I guess is both good and bad :D!). It might also allow for nicer interop with Javascript and other languages. In this case, we went for the last option, mostly because we felt the most important thing is ergonomics and interop, but well, I am still curious how would other directions play out. Plus at the end we didn't yet get to the point where language is more expressive than JSON (code example: https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/blob/master/examples/tutor...). Maybe I am just missing a better design process, but it seems to me that with a language idea it is hard to say if it is good or not until you try using it. |