VSHN.timer

VSHN.timer #42: YAML Dabba Doo!

11. May 2020

Welcome to another VSHN.timer! Every Monday, 5 links related to Kubernetes, OpenShift, CI / CD, and DevOps; all stuff coming out of our own chat system, making us think, laugh, or simply work better.
This week we’re going to talk about YAML, the markup language that’s driving most of the cloud native app world.
1. YAML is everywhere. 15 years ago it was mostly found in configuration files for Ruby on Rails apps. Nowadays? Crazy. Docker Compose? Check. Kubernetes deployments? Check. Ansible playbooks? Check. Antora playbooks? Check (although these can also be written in TOML, did you know?) GitLab CI/CD pipelines? Check. Azure pipelines? Check. Great! Right? No, not really; Martin Tournoij has kept a very interesting list of awful YAML facts well worth a read.
https://www.arp242.net/yaml-config.html
2. Many of us are quite happy with the YAML plugin by Red Hat for Visual Studio Code, but if you are a Vim user busy editing Kubernetes configuration files day and night, this article will certainly make your day.
https://octetz.com/docs/2020/2020-01-06-vim-k8s-yaml-support/
3. We always wanted to write a clickbait headline in a VSHN.timer article, so here it goes: “How many ways are there to break a multi-line string in YAML? The answer might surprise you.”
https://stackoverflow.com/a/21699210
4. The hatred towards YAML made Geoffrey Huntley create an anti-YAML manifesto… written in YAML. Extraordinary.
https://noyaml.com/
5. If you reached the point of YAML saturation, you might want to give the CDK for Kubernetes a try. It helps you write manifests using Python and TypeScript instead of YAML. Because no problem can’t be solved with yet another level of abstraction.
https://cdk8s.io/
Does your team get along well with YAML? Or have they wrapped it with yet another abstraction layer? Do you have any tips you would like to share with the community? Get in touch with us through the form at the bottom of this page, and see you next week for another edition of VSHN.timer.

Adrian Kosmaczewski

Adrian Kosmaczewski is in charge of Developer Relations at VSHN. He is a software developer since 1996, a trainer, and a published author. Adrian holds a Master in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool.

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