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Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële 🌹"):
tryst@imu.li ("trystimuli") wrote:
@adele the generality of the text editor (and unix text processing tools) is very nice, and when working within the current ecosystem i always choose them.
and yet i also find text formats harmful. the vast majority of programming languages, config files, and exchange formats reinforce english-supremacy. different people have different layout preferences - spacing habits, column widths, indentation styles, and in programming naming conventions - why must they compromise on those to collaborate? and those compromises inevitably favor the parties with more power.
so i am intrigued by the possibility of general self-describing binary formats that do not embed privileged perspectives. i suspect a similarly general ecosystem of tools could be built around something with more structure than text (which is, after all, also a binary format), and perhaps be even better.