CSL YAML export in Zotero desktop and web library

bwiernik
Would it be possible to add CSL YAML as a built-in export format in Zotero Desktop and the web library? I know of a lot of teaching materials that use Zotero in combination with Markdown. Currently, most of these teach to use BibTeX format, which isn’t great with Markdown. CSL JSON is less human-readable than BibTeX, though. It would be a lot easier to encourage these courses to transition to CSL data format if there was an option for CSL YAML in the web library/that didn’t require a plugin.
  • adamsmith
    If @dstillman doesn't have any concerns, I don't think that'd be hard to do, so this is really a policy/design decision. I think it's a good case for including it (also for pandoc MWEs, say)
  • emilianoeheyns
    Not hard to do. It's mostly just a YAML-serialization of the CSL-JSON object, but there's a few (useless IMO) differences in the date format. You might have to hand-code the YAML serializer though to keep file size reasonable.
  • dstillman
    I do not personally care for YAML, but we can add this if people think it would be useful. It would just be light wrapper around the CSL JSON translator. We would definitely not bundle a YAML serializer.

    I think the main argument against would be the potential for confusion between CSL-JSON and CSL-YAML. Things are pretty simple now with a single CSL-related format.
  • bwiernik
    edited September 13, 2022
    JSON’s lack of human readability is a big barrier for many folks I’ve spoken to trying to move away from .bib in Markdown, so YAML would be a big benefit there

    We could even label the two “CSL data format” and “CSL Markdown format” if we wanted to
  • emilianoeheyns
    Csl yaml wouldn't need a full yaml serializer. It uses only very basic yaml features.
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