this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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The "PURPOSE" is the keyword.
If the purpose of the software is to work in closed, offline environment with Mr. NOTECH operating it via "line 5: rotations per minute; line 6: temperature in Fahrenheit" commands, then trust me, it's going to get the job done.
"unbeatable" and "get the job done" are very different claims. If you just have bare unlabeled numbers on "magic lines" in a file - sure you can work with that. But I'd hardly say it's "unbeatable" compared to "anything else" for readability and clarity. It's the type of thing programming classes have students do so they don't have to introduce libraries or other concepts.
It's very likely that Mr. NOTECH would be able to understand "TEMP_F: ###" just as easily as "put the temperature on line 6". And it would likely be MUCH easier for Mr. NOTECH to look at a config file and read back to you what the temperature setting is. Especially if they haven't worked with the software for long. As a bonus it would be easier for Mr. NOTECH to know whether the temperature should be in F or C. Or even Kelvin.
Unbeatabe, then.
I see, you're not being serious.
I absolutely am. You're simply overthinking it - the scenario I provided makes plaintext *.txt perfect.
Sure, we can spend the rest of the day inventing scenarios, where Mr. NOTECH will be manipulated remotely by aliens, and what then, but that's an exercise in creativity, not a situation that needs to be taken into account.