SKON

Space Kraken Object Notation - https://github.com/SpaceKrakens/SKON

Is a language originally created to accommodate the data format language need for Project Porcupine.

Its main focus is besting all other object notation languages. No more need for 90% filler in xml, the unreadable "s in Json or the overly complex superset of JSON; YAML.

It's also notable that it has a schema language, SKEMA! So you don't have to just blindly trust the user. 🐙

You can find the SKON Spec here and the SKEMA Spec here.

Table of contents

• Example
• SKEMA
• Types
• Projects

Example

The following is an example showing the syntax of the language:

//SKON supports comments!
/* and multiline ones too! :D */

~Version: 1~ // This is the SKON version header.

// Every SKON file is considered a map so everything is stored in key-value pairs.

// This is a value in the root map. The key is "RootKey" and it stores a string value "RootValue".
RootKey: "RootValue",

// This is a map inside the root map, it stores data in key-value pairs.
MapKey: {

    StringKey: "StringValue", // N.B.! In SKON every key value ends with a comma!! Even if it's the last one!!

    // SKON has support for different data types!
    IntKey: 1,
    DoubleKey: 1.1,
    BoolKey: true,
    DateTimeKey: @2016-10-05, //N.B. You can read more about DateTimes in SKON below!

    // In addition to maps SKON also has arrays!
    StringArrayKey: [ "This", "is", "a", "string", "array!", ], // N.B. Note the comma after the last string!

    // And of course nested maps in maps work, as expected!
    NestedMap:
    {
        ANestedValueKey: "This is a nested value",
    },
},

SKEMA

The schema language for SKON is called SKEMA. The following is an example of a SKEMA file and a maching SKON file.

~Version: 1~

// SKEMA also supports comments!

// Defines a structure "Color" containing a string "Name" and int "Color"
def Color:
{
    Name: string,
    Color: int,
},

// Defines that an array called Colors needs to exits
// and that the all the elements most conform to the Color definition.
Colors: [ #Color ],

A quick SKON file that is valid for this SKEMA could look like this:

~Version: 1~
~SKEMA: "./Colors.skema"~

Colors:
[
    { Name: "Red", Color: 0xFF0000, },
    { Name: "Green", Color: 0x00FF00, },
    { Name: "Blue", Color: 0x0000FF, },
],

Language specifications

Types

The language has a eight built in data types that allows data to be easily represented.

The built in types are devided into two categories, Simple types and Complex types.

The following is a list of the eight types in their respective category.

Simple types:

• String
• Integer
• Double
• Boolean
• Datetime

Complex types:

• Array
• Map

Syntax

In SKON most simple data is represented in plain text with no additional syntax.

The exceptions to this is Strings, which are quoted and DateTimes wich start with an @.

Here are a few examples:

• 0 is an Integer.
• "example" is a String.
• 0.2 is a Double.
• true is a Boolean.
• @2016-01-01 is a DateTime

The two complex types just enclose data with either braces or brackets.

Arrays

Arrays are written as data surrounded by brackets with every entry separated by a comma.

An array can contain any data type if not otherwise stated in a SKEMA.

[
    "This",
    "is",
    "an",
    "array",
    "of",
    "strings",
],

Maps

A map is written as any number of key value pairs followed by a comma surrounded in curly braces.

A key value pair is written as such:

key: value

Where the key is plain text and the value is any data type.

So a map would then look like this:

{
    Key1: value1,
    Key2: value2,
},

Every file In SKON is a map, so all elements in root has to be a key value pair.

This is what a file containing a string and map would look like:

Name: "SomeName",

Map: {

    SomeKey: "SomeValue",
},

Datetimes

There are numerous ways to write date and time in SKON, most of which are based upon RFC 3339/ISO 8601. Additionally to this standard, SKON supports UNIX Timestamps.

DateTimes: 
[
    @1,                                 // These two values are valid UNIX Timestamps.
    @1473113744,
    
    @2310-12-01,                        // Just the date in the YYYY-MM-DD format.
    
    @2310-12-01T13:37:01Z,              // Date and additionally time in the HH:mm:ssZ format.
                                        // Z stands for Zulu and means no difference from UTC.
                                        // Date and time are always separated by a T (for time).
    
    @2310-12-01T13:37:01.02Z,           // Date and additionally time in the HH:mm:ss.SECFRACZ format.
                                        // SECFRAC is a fraction of a second. Technically SKON gives
                                        // you no limit but we advise to stay reasonable.
    
    @2310-12-01T13:37:01+09:00,         // To specify a different offset than UTC+0, substitute Z with
                                        // either +HH:MM or -HH:MM.
    
    @2310-12-01T13:37:01.002+09:00,     // This obviously also works with fractions of seconds.
    
    @13:37:01Z,                         // You can also write times alone by obmitting the date
    @13:37:01.02Z,                      // part and the date/time separator T.
    @13:37:01+09:00,                    // All four different formats for times are supported.
    @13:37:01.002+09:00,
],

Projects

• SKON.NET - .NET parser and api