KDL syntax for arrays?

[xpe]

According to #389 (comment) this is valid syntax:

Scene {
    materials {
        metal reflectivity=1.0
        plastic reflectivity=0.5
    }
    entities {
        - name=hero material=metal
        - name=monster material=plastic
    }
}

Like I wrote at #389 (reply in thread) :

@tabatkins Thanks for this. After searching around the document, this one place is the only place where I've seen documentation for the KDL's use of - for arrays. Did I miss something?

[xpe]

One of my current guesses is that - functions as a node name, order is preserved, and the client 'agrees' to not care about it.

[tabatkins]

But yeah, - is just a valid node name. By convention, it's useful to represent items in an array, which aren't named; this is explicit in JiK, where using other node names on your children makes you a JSON Object rather than a JSON Array.

[xpe]

@larsgw To your question about #3: perhaps it would have been clearer if I had written "whatever program consumes the parsed data doesn't need to keep the node name (-) when parsing to an array".

[larsgw]

@xpe Aha, okay. Yes, again that's the case for clients of JiK (JSON-in-KDL), but not for KDL clients/implementations in general.

[tabatkins]

Right, "parsing to an array" implies you're leaving KDL and putting it into some other language, where the node name obviously isn't important (order is, instead). But as long as you're manipulating KDL, a - node name is just as significant as anything else.

[xpe]

Thanks everyone. Looks like the answer (fully explained at least) sort of got scattered across various comments so I'm not sure which one to pick.