tml-specification.md

TML - Tiny Markup Language

Specification:

TML is a human-readable smart data-serialization language. Something like YAML, JSON, XML.

The content of a TML file consists of one or more name-value pairs. The following is an example with different name-value pairs.

someText = hello
a-number = 13
perentage = 0.34
array-with-names = Alice Bob Carol Eve Mallory
aObjectWithTml
	name = Max
	weight = 71.7
	body-height = 123
use-mipmap = false
active = true
asdf = null
# this is a comment

text = "text with spaces must be between apostrophes"

A indent must be one or more tabs or one or more spaces. The first indent defines the characters for a indent (must be one or more tabs or one or more spaces). Mixing is not allowed!

TML supports following types:

• Null: null
• Boolean: Can be true or false
• Integer: Sequence of digits. Optional starting with + or -.
• Floating point: Sequence of digits with a dot .. Optional starting with + or -.
• Text: A Text is everthing which is not a Null, a Boolean, a Integer and not a Floating point. e.g. ThisIsAText123. A text with spaces is not classified a simple text. If a text with spaces is necessary then apostrophes must be used. e.g. "This is a example with spaces".
• Array: The elements of an array are separated with spaces.
• Object (Section): An object has an object name at the first line without a value (no = ... at the first line). The members of of the object are the following lines. The members must be indent. An object can also be seen as a section (like from an INI file).

Objects can be nested like the following example:

aObject
	name = Max
	weight = 71.7
	body-height = 123

	subObj
		idName = TEX123
		links = 3
		date = null
		counter = 3
		numbers = 4 2 8 0 2 4

	subObj
		idName = OBJ321
		links = 6
		numbers = 4.3 2.1 8 0 2 4

		otherObj
			idName = 321
			links = 6
			numbers = 4 2 8 0 2 4

	subObj
		idName = 321-A
		links = 6
		numbers = 4 2 8 0 2 4