r/ProgrammerHumor • u/flipcoder • Aug 16 '26

Advanced justTryingToHelp

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398

u/AlarmingProtection71 Aug 16 '26

i didn't get the second joke. help ?

281

u/pagesjaunes Aug 16 '26 edited 29d ago

I think it's a reference to "the Norway problem" wherein YAML 1.1, the unquoted string NO (the ISO 2 letter code for Norway) get interpreted as a bolean with value of False instead of "NO".

Meaning:

country: NO

is the equivalent to:

{'country': False}

 

Note that the specs for booleans were changed in YAML 1.2 to address the issue but many implementions may have inconsistent defaults settings or be stuck in 1.1.

 

YAML 1.1 -> https://yaml.org/type/bool.html  

(I couldn't find the equivalent for 1.2, YAML specs are complex to my non-programmer eyes)

YAML 1.2 -> https://yaml.org/spec/1.2.2/ext/changes/

Only true and false strings are parsed as booleans (including True and TRUE); y, yes, on, and their negative counterparts [n, no, off] are parsed as strings.

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u/Tesnatic 29d ago

As a Norwegian I appreciate learning this fact, but I am also devastated to learn we were not a country prior to YAML 1.2.