steffen-kiess/factorio-blueprintalignment

factorio-blueprintalignment's Issues

Enhancement: Smaller, more readable JSON style property encoding

How about using:

Some blueprint {align:[16,8]}
to shorten
Some blueprint (alignx = 16, aligny = 8)

and

Some blueprint {align:[16,8,0,0,10,10]}
to shorten
Some blueprint (alignx = 16, aligny = 8, offsetx = 0, offsety = 0, roffsetx = 10, roffsety = 10)
?

Pros:

• much shorter and arguably more readable
• can use generic json parser to build properties object from the text beginning at the first '{'.
  • (it's not strictly well formed json without quotes around the keys but many parsers including the javascript one work with this format, apparently)
• simple to encode additional properties with less compatibility risk.
  • it would be easy to encode info for other mods in the name without them interfering with each other using json syntax that is familiar to many people.

Cons:

• : may cause issues if saving blueprints using their name as the filename.
  • Workaround: allow using ; as well (replace before parse) - it looks almost the same and causes no issues with file system.
• not strictly well formed json so may break if javascript parser changes to be strict.
  • Workaround: allow using quotes and use regex to insert missing quotes after top level { and before next : before parsing.

You could even separate property decoding into another module or mod even for other blueprint mods to use.

I'd just like a shorter name without reducing readability or simplicity though, which I think a JSON style would give with other benefits too.