sif - simple info format
 get the official python module / go home
    

welcome! this is the official documentation about sif. below is the spec, and python API documentation.

- syntax
    sif is designed to be the absolute bare minimum required for writing data, while maintaining a clean readable syntax.
    you'll notice the syntax to be very similar to something like ini or toml, because sif was inspired from them.

    the syntax is key = value. basically, everything before the first = sign is considered the key,
    while everything after it is considered the value.
    
    - example:
        # this is a comment
        key = value
        another key = another value
        newlines = can also be done
         simply put a space at the start of a new line
        
        9+10=21
      

    - comments, newline strings, types
        1. every single line beginning with a # is considered a comment.
        2. newline strings work by having a space character at the start of a new line. this tells the parser we are continuing the key above.
           if you put n spaces like "  hello world", those space will be inserted into the output string too. the first one is a delimiter for a newline to the string.
        3. because the format is minimal, theres no types, everything is a string.
           however you can make type conversion for stuff like "true", "false" or "null" yourself.

- using the python module
    - parse(string: str) -> dict
        parses a sif string as an object
        
        example: 
        
          import sif
          with open("file.sif", "r") as f:
            data = sif.parse(f.read())
          
          print(data["key"])
        

    - parse_arr(string: str) -> list
        parses a sif string as an array
        
        example:
          
            import sif    
            with open("file.sif", "r") as f:
                data = sif.parse_arr(f.read())
            
            print(data[0][1]) # gets the value of the first key
          


    - dump(obj: dict) -> str
        dumps a dictionary as a sif string
        note that this function does remove comments and may not work well in rare special occasions.
        
        example:
          
            import sif
            with open("file.sif", "r") as f:
              data = sif.parse(f.read())
            
            data["key"] = "new value"
            
            with open("export.sif", "w") as f:
              f.write( sif.dump(data) )