How much do I hate YAML?

[apsteinmetz]

Don't know why there isn't a 'Quarto' category so 'R Markdown'.

<rant>
I hate YAML about as much as I love Quarto, a lot. So here's a valid YAML block in my blog's 'index.rmd' file

listing: 
  contents: posts
  feed: true

Now I want to add an option to the 'feed' parameter.

listing: 
  contents: posts
  feed: true
    type: full

This breaks because 'true' has to be removed as the feed generation becomes implicit when options are added. Okay, but it's dumb. How am I supposed to find that out, anyway?

And, what's with the dashes? What rhyme or reason? Using them here:

  navbar:
    left:
      - text: Blog
        file: index.qmd
      - text: About
        file: about.qmd

doesn't parallel their usage here:

listing: 
  contents: posts
  sort: 
    - "date desc"
    - "title desc"

...and silly stuff, like spaces/indentation matters in YAML. Fine, but it doesn't matter in the R langauge. A Python coder might assume it but I didn't.

I realize YAML isn't Markdown, but it is a major stumbling block to newcomers given the Quarto guides and tutorials all seem to assume basic YAML knowledge. Thank you for reading.

</rant>

[kwstat]

Amen. I too have experienced the pain of YAML. In the past I have looked for a good reference card and was not able to find one. There is a weird lack of documentation for YAML compared to the good documentation for Rmd.