Understanding YAML

So far, we've looked at CSV, XML and JSON as data on the web…solutions, all of which are text-based and all of which are fairly easy to read.…In this chapter, we'll examine another entry in the data on…the web sweepstakes, one that relies on visual spacing to provide structure.…I am, of course, referring to YAML.…The YAML does not, as some would think, stand for Yet…Another Markup Language. Rather, it's a recursive acronym that's…short for, YAML Ain't Markup Language because so little markup is actually used.…

It was first proposed in 2001 and created by the wonderfully named…Ingy dot Net, along with partners Clark Evans and Oren Ben-Kiki.…You can find the latest version as well as reference material at the yaml.org site.…Don't be taken aback by the purely textual…page, the page itself is written in YAML format.…The creators of YAML refer to…it as a Human-readable data serialization standard.…Which, ironically, is somewhat less human understandable than YAML code itself.…

Here, we're seeing a user with a first name, last name, and state specified.…