Question

This is a part of the syntax highlighting code, taken from TextMate.

Do you know what type of data formatting is being used? (it’s definitely Json-like, but with variations)

{   shellVariables = (
        {   name = 'TM_COMMENT_START';
            value = '// ';
        },
        {   name = 'TM_COMMENT_START_2';
            value = '# ';
        },
        {   name = 'TM_COMMENT_START_3';
            value = '/*';
        },
        {   name = 'TM_COMMENT_END_3';
            value = '*/';
        },
    );
}

Answer 1

According to the TextMate manual the grammar definition uses os x properly list format.