Maybe I'm misunderstanding serialization here, but my understanding of it is that a program can serialize it's internal datastructure into a easily transmittable or readable format. And YAML is almost always a configuration format, (so a deserialization format?)
Edit:
> In computing, serialization (or serialisation) is the process of translating a data structure or object state into a format that can be stored (e.g. files in secondary storage devices, data buffers in primary storage devices) or transmitted (e.g. data streams over computer networks) and reconstructed later (possibly in a different computer environment). [Wikipedia]
So a serialization format is something a machine generates to store or transmit some internal data structure or state. JSON is an obvious example. YAML on the other hand is a superset of JSON with a lot of different ways to represent the same data. This creates a problem; the serializer has to choose which way to use. But writing YAML is simple, way more than JSON. Built in to YAML there are many things that seem to me to be made for the humans writing the format and not a program serializing to it. In fact, it's not often I see some machine-generated YAML, it's almost always something made for humans to write.
Edit:
> In computing, serialization (or serialisation) is the process of translating a data structure or object state into a format that can be stored (e.g. files in secondary storage devices, data buffers in primary storage devices) or transmitted (e.g. data streams over computer networks) and reconstructed later (possibly in a different computer environment). [Wikipedia]
So a serialization format is something a machine generates to store or transmit some internal data structure or state. JSON is an obvious example. YAML on the other hand is a superset of JSON with a lot of different ways to represent the same data. This creates a problem; the serializer has to choose which way to use. But writing YAML is simple, way more than JSON. Built in to YAML there are many things that seem to me to be made for the humans writing the format and not a program serializing to it. In fact, it's not often I see some machine-generated YAML, it's almost always something made for humans to write.