Karabiner-elements: Configuration Format

[laktak]

Would it be possible to use Hjson as a configuration format instead of plain JSON?

Hjson avoids a lot of mistakes people make when editing JSON. It is also very lightweight and can be converted to JSON by a tool (so you don't have to change your config logic).

[justinmayer]

Presumably there will eventually be a user interface for configuring Karabiner Elements, so I don't think the minor JSON/HJSON differences are worth spending time on. I'd rather have @tekezo focus on higher-priority features.

[eugenesvk]

Agree, also allows to use comments (very helpful in my previous .xml file)!
and @justinmayer user interface doesn't help at all, all the custom editing is done via manually editing the file, UI is only for enabling/disabling custom keybinds. Also, given that it's a minor difference, should it not take little time to implement?

[justinmayer]

@eugenesvk: The user interface definitely helped me — I never once had to manually edit the previous XML file.

Also, given that it's a minor difference, should it not take little time to implement?

If I had a dollar for every time someone said, "This should be easy. Should only take a few minutes."

Never works out that way.

[laktak]

@justinmayer good for you. I've been editing the private.xml config since it was still called KeyRemap4MacBook. You'd be surprised at how powerful this tool is.

[eugenesvk]

@justinmayer

I never once had to manually edit the previous XML file.

good for you, though I don't understand why you'd offer a solution to an issue you have no experience with. No, GUI config can't do like 90% of what Karabiner can, hence the request to make the config format more user-friendly.

Don't want to argue with your "a few minutes" strawman, will just leave it up to tekezo to weigh the trade-offs and decide if he could fit this format change in his development pipeline.

[scarfacedeb]

There's also yaml for user-friendly configs

[talha131]

If we had hjson, the usage/purpose/explanation of example.json like this one would have ended up right in the json itself.

[petonic]

I'm thinking about crufting together a scaffolding CLI pipeline that allows the use of a template and then YAML code to make it a bit more maintainable. I didn't like the old XML way of storing from the old Karabiner, but at least you could put comments in it. Thoughts?

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