fac-format 0.1.2

A deliberately complicated and inefficient file format alternative to JSON

FAC Format - A Deliberately Complicated File Format

FAC (Frustratingly Awful Configuration) is an intentionally complicated and inefficient alternative to JSON. It's designed to be hard to read, write, and parse - because sometimes we need to appreciate how good we have it with JSON!

Features

• ❌ Not human-readable (by design!)
• ❌ Unnecessarily complex syntax
• ❌ Deliberately verbose
• ✅ Python parser included
• ✅ Converts to/from Python dictionaries

Installation

pip install fac-format

Usage

Writing FAC Files

from fac_parser import FacWriter

data = {
    "name": "John Doe",
    "age": 30,
    "hobbies": ["reading", "coding"]
}

writer = FacWriter()
fac_content = writer.write(data)

with open('output.fac', 'w') as f:
    f.write(fac_content)

Reading FAC Files

from fac_parser import FacParser

with open('input.fac', 'r') as f:
    content = f.read()

parser = FacParser()
data = parser.parse(content)

File Format Specification

FAC uses a unique and deliberately complicated syntax:

1. Files must start with @begin/format@ and end with @end/format@
2. Comments use \note prefix
3. Values are declared using:

   @value|key_name
   /content\|type|value
   

4. Lists are declared using:

   @list|list_name
   |item\value1
   |item\value2
   /end\list
   

5. Objects are declared using:

   @object|object_name
   @value|nested_key
   /content\|type|value
   /end\object
   

Data Types

• Text: |text|value
• Numbers: |number|value
• Booleans: |boolean|true or |boolean|false

Example FAC File

@begin/format@
\note this is a sample FAC file

@value|name
/content\|text|John Doe

@value|age
/content\|number|30

@list|hobbies
|item\reading
|item\coding
/end\list

@object|address
@value|street
/content\|text|123 Main St
/end\object
@end/format@

Why Use FAC?

You probably shouldn't! This format was created as a demonstration of how not to design a data format. It serves as an educational tool to appreciate the elegance and simplicity of formats like JSON, YAML, and TOML.

Contributing

If you want to make FAC even worse (or better at being worse), feel free to contribute! Just remember: the more complicated and frustrating, the better.

License

MIT License - Because even bad ideas should be free to share!