add a note to the spec contrasting with Java properties syntax

This commit is contained in:
Havoc Pennington 2011-12-06 00:12:21 -05:00
parent 0c200aad93
commit 9cf554250b

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@ -1003,3 +1003,28 @@ Environment variables are interpreted as follows:
- environment variables always become a string value, though
if an app asks for another type automatic type conversion
would kick in
## Note on Java properties similarity
You can write a HOCON file that looks much like a Java properties
file, and many valid Java properties files will also parse as
HOCON.
However, HOCON is not a Java properties superset and the corner
cases work like JSON, not like properties.
Differences include but are probably not limited to:
- certain characters that can be unquoted in properties files
have to be placed in JSON-style double-quoted strings in HOCON
- unquoted strings in HOCON do not support escape sequences
- unquoted strings in HOCON do not preserve trailing whitespace
- multi-line unquoted strings using backslash to continue the
line are not allowed in HOCON
- in properties files you can omit the value for a key and it's
interpreted as an empty string, in HOCON you cannot omit the
value
- properties files support '!' as a comment character
- HOCON allows comments on the same line as a key or value, while
properties files only recognize comment characters if they
occur as the first character on the line