natural-language-object.md

NOBJ (Natural Object) - Natural Language Object Notation v0.0.1 Draft

Introduction

NOBJ aims to provide a structured data format that is closer to natural language while retaining the simplicity and ease of parsing of JSON. The goal is to allow LLMs to output higher-quality results that can be directly parsed by programs without the need for secondary conversion to JSON.

Advantages:

• Readability: Uses words and structures closer to everyday language, making it easier for LLMs to read and understand.
• Maintainability: More intuitive design, making data structures easier to understand and modify.
• Cross-Language Usability: Natural language elements can more easily bridge language barriers for better understanding.

Disadvantages:

Current limitations:

• Supports only flat simple objects or arrays.
• Lacks hierarchical structure, unable to represent nested objects or arrays.
• Does not support optional fields.
• Requires prompt engineering to ensure LLM outputs in the correct order and format.

Examples

NOBJ Representation of a Simple Object:

name: John Doe
age: 30
city: New York
# Array values
tags: developer, engineer

NOBJ Representation of a Simple Array:

name: John Doe
age: 30
city: New York

name: Mike Doe
age: 20
city: New York

Notes:

• NOBJ is still under development, and specific syntax rules and parsing methods will be further refined in the future.
• String values do not include newline characters.
• Array values are comma-separated.
• If a key contains spaces, the spaces in the returned JSON object's key will be replaced with underscores (_).