Assuming that a program is written in either C, C++, Fortran or python, what do you think is the best format for the input file given that users could be relatively diverse, i.e. not familiar with the source code? My current interest is a thermodynanic property tool but the discussion could be more general. Here is what I think are the main options:dumb ASCII fileVARIABLE_NAME300OTHER_VARIABLE101325STRING_ARRAYN2 O2more involved ASCII file: some custom delimiters to better handle array inputs for example. Essentially you are trying to be smart about your data and have a custom parser that is more flexible than the one for the dumb ASCIIJSONxmlAnything else you would recommend? A lot of tools choose route #2 but I really don't like it, you often end up with weird non-standard syntax that are more confusing than helping.
Recommendations for input file format for science applications
data management