Convention over Configuration

Conventions based on reasonable evolved defaults is the way.

Follow the principle of Less Astonishment.

Established conventions

• "The cat sat on the mat" a string
• 1, 2 a sequence of elements (separated by comma) of an array or a list
• [ ] - a linear ordered sequence
• { } - the notion of grouping, a basic block, a deep (non-linear) structure.
• * for zero-or-more values (a multiplicator)
• _ as a placeholder (discarded/unused value)
• /a/b for a accessing elements of a hierarchical tree-like structure (path)
• p.x for referencing of a property/element of a compound value (structure)
• a[1] selecting an element of a sequence by index
• d["key"] selecting a value for a given key
• key: val the notion of association (a mapping)

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See also BigIdeas/Declarative, JSON