Sugar is a pretty, sweet data language. Alternative to: JSON, YAML, TOML, et cetera.

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The main idea

Sugar is a general-purpose data language that has 4 value types: Unit, Text, List, & Map. There's also an optional value, Note. It appends to any value type using < > and comes in handy as associated metadata or parameters.

Simple example

name: sugar
fileExtension: *.g
pronunciation: "sho͝ogʹər"
definitions: [
  "Sucrose in crystal form"<noun>
  "To sweeten"<verb>
  "Term of endearment"<noun>
  "Syntactic sugar"<noun>
]
synonyms: [sweetener, sucrose]
antonyms: [achromatic, soothe]
chemicalProperties: {
  formula: [C<12> H<22> O<11>],
  moleWeight<g / mol>: 342.30,
  density<g / cm ^ 3>: 1.587,
  meltingPoint: 186<celsius>,
}

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In-depth examples

Text to Text pairs

; This is a comment.
; Top-level of a file is a `Map`.

; `key0` and `key1` are text types. `value0` and "value one within..." are text types too.
key0: value0
key1: "value one within quotes for spaces"

Text to List pairs

; key to list
key2: (list of 4 items)
key3: (nested [list of values])

Text to Map pairs

; key to Map
key4: {keyA: valueA, keyB: valueB}
key5: {keyA: {nestedKey: nestedValue}, keyB: valueB}

Non-Text keys in pairs

#| Keys aren't limited to text types. Lists can be used as the key.
   Maps can also be used as the key. |#
(list as keys): value
{id0: value0, id1: value1}: value

Note examples

; A note can annotate any data type by immediately following it.
; And a note captures any data type.
key6<note>: value6<"note as text again">
key7<can be (a list)>: value7<{or: be, a: key, value: pair}>
{key8: key9}<still-works-here>: {and: here, with: unit}<()>

More examples are found here.

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Data

Type	Example
Unit	()
Text	textWithoutSpace or text-with-dashes_and_underscores or "text with spaces"
List	[item1 item2 item3] or (i1 i2 i3) or [i1, i2, i3] or [i1, i2, i3,]
Map	{} or {key1: value1} or {k1: v1 k2: v2} or {k1: v1, k2: v2} or {k1: v1, k2: v2,}
Note	()<note> or text<note note> or(a b c)<{note: note}> or {k: v}<note (a b c) () {et: cetera}>

*Notice the lack of number and boolean types. Unit can be thought of as null.

Comments

Type	Example
Single-line	; comment
Multi-line	#| comment content |#

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*BNF

sugar ::= '()' note | text note | list note | map note
text ::= '"' string '"' | string
list ::= '[' sugar [[','] sugar] ']'
map  ::= '{' sugar ':' sugar [[','] sugar ':' sugar] '}'
note ::= ['<' sugar [[','] sugar] '>']

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Other tips

• Top level of a file is already a Map but without curly braces
• Map can have non-unique keys
• Map must maintain pair ordering
• () is a Unit and ( ) is an empty List because of the whitespace
• Each comma in List or Map or Note is optional
• Formatting (or lack thereof) is a preference by the user