Turing Complete Configuration
- more extensible
- tend to be heavier
- harder to provide detailed error messages
- more difficult for new users
Data Based Configuration
- easier to use
- easier to provide documentation
- lighter to embed
- more limited usecases
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Turing Complete Configuration
Data Based Configuration
For stuff like, say, configuring all of your systems and programs in one file, actual programming languages are really useful. coughnixcough
I've become addicted to script-configured window managers. I won't even try ones that aren't, anymore.
Bash is a scripting language, so it qualifies per your description, but the main advantage is that anything you can do in the config, you can do on the CLI: these WMs also have first-class CLI tooling, a consequence of CLI-first design. All configuration is runtime adaptable, and although auto config reloading can get you there, it's fantastic to be able to change a configuration without it having to be persisted in a file.
Seriously, next to tiling, scripted configuration is the most important feature of a WM. I haven't encountered it outside of WMs very often, but for long running processes, it's a great design.
Apart from text editors/IDEs I don't really see the use for it. I think it is not practical unless all your users are both power users and programmers, which basically boils down to developer tools.
scriptable configuration makes sense if you want to be able to extend or modify the program like with vim while data based configuration makes sense if your program is already extendable/configurable enough like with i3
I think the primary difference is that data based configuration is easier for software to modify and store.
You can also get the best of both worlds: https://cuelang.org/
People like you are why I love online spaces like this.
Yes, it's obscure. Yes, nobody uses it. Yes, nobody ever heard of it before. No, that won't stop me from using it.
it’s not just a json config file, it’s a schema that can be used to validate its input, and a library to load, validate based on said schema, and convert to-in memory representation with no extra code.
As long as it's not configured by GUI I'm grateful 🙏😔