[throw0101d]

> All these tools could've just as well grown to be popular with a proper format, and your point would be exactly the same

And what would this "proper format" be? Currently JSON is in vogue (or JSON5, which allows comments?), but a few years ago it would have been XML, before that… CSV? TSV?

Or perhaps do a Choose Your Own Adventure:

* https://libxo.readthedocs.io/

The Unix-y world has been around for decades, so it many ways it has evolved rather than be designed.

[eviks]

Yes, the lack of good design in that world is apparent and will continue to cripple a few more generations (but re. evolution that's often a false reading - in many cases it's some primitive napkin design made at the beginning of those decades that stuck without much evolution), but you've wandered into the wrong thread - it's not about the single best format that could've been, just about a circular logic flaw in the argument