Yet another totally off-topic question for you extremely smart people. Well, it’s a language design question, so it’s not *too* off-topic.
I’m temporarily serving as my department’s scheduler (don’t ask). Currently,
the planning for the future schedule is done using an Excel spreadsheet. I try
not to hate Microsoft products for knee-jerk reasons, but the simple fact is
that this format is completely not git-versionable.
This file has to be shared with non-programmers, though it doesn’t necessarily
have to be *edited* by non-programmers, just read.
I’m currently thinking that the best compromise may be YAML. E.G.
# 2017-2018 schedule:
alincoln : {fall: [304, 428], winter: [409, special], spring: []} # maybe
theater?
gwashington: {fall: [224, 287, 110], winter: sabbatical, spring: [789]}
# might be able to hire stuffy?
stuffy: {fall: [234,234,234], winter: [235, 235, 235]}
…
It looks like a fairly dense format, it’s a text file so it’s versionable in a
sane way, and you could be fairly flexible in your parsing.
To be fair, sexprs also look pretty good:
;; 2017-2018 schedule
((alincoln ((fall (304 428)) (winter (409 special)) (spring ()))) ;; maybe
theater?
(gwashington ((fall (224 287 110)) (winter sabbatical) (spring (789))))
;; might be able to hire stuffy?
(stuffy ((fall (234 234 234)) (winter 235 235 235))))
Also note that there’s no need for this file to contain any information about
times and rooms, just a mapping from instructor/quarter
to classes taught, with room for comments.
I thought hard about scribble and JSON (and xml, yecch), but I think that YAML
and sexps are the two viable candidates, and I’m guessing that if
non-programmers have to edit it, they’ll be less likely to botch the YAML one.
Any opinions?
John
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