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Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:51:50 +0000
From: Adrian Crum <adrian.crum@sandglass-software.com>
Organization: Sandglass Software
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To: Commons Developers List <dev@commons.apache.org>
Subject: Re: [csv] API design
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On 11/29/2011 2:26 PM, Emmanuel Bourg wrote:
> Le 29/11/2011 14:43, Matt Benson a �crit :
>
>> Well, assuming "header-free" CSV output you could do any odd thing like:
>>
>> foo;bar;(2);element1;element2;
>>
>> giving an open-ended format.  Not saying such would be the greatest
>> idea, but could be usable under the right circumstances.
>> Alternatively, one could embed the collection:
>>
>> foo;bar;"{element1;element2}"
>
> ... and it starts to get fun when you want to escape the special 
> characters '"', ';' and '}' in the collection ;)
>
> It's possible to tailor a CSV like format that supports collections, 
> but if it doesn't interoperate with other CSV tools it's hardly 
> useful. If people want a more capable format without caring about 
> interoperability there are legions of alternative serialization APIs 
> available.
>
> That's why I think [csv] should focus on the simple format defined by 
> RFC4180, exotic features are for more ambitious projects (at least for 
> now).
>

I agree. My personal software design philosophy is: Do one thing, and do 
it really well.

-Adrian


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