Career Description Language

Career Description Language (CDL) is a very simple language designed to describe the contents of your career. Using this information, resumes/CVs can be generated automatically without you having to think about formatting, allowing you to focus more on what actually matters (the content, not date abbreviations/margins/etc.).

An implementation of such a compiler (cdlc) can be found here.

Schema

This is version 2 of the schema is implemented by cdlc versions 2.X.

The schema is composed of "directives" (instructions), signaled by the first character of each line (followed by a space). The rest of the line acts as the operand of the directive.

These directives are organized into "blocks" of directives grouped together to describe a section of data.

One special directive is # <text>, which represents a comment (the rest of the line is ignored).

The first non-comment directive must be V <number>, which declares the schema version. This version of the schema must have <number> be 2 (aka V 2).

Head Block

The head block contains basic information (name/links). There is only one head block in a file. The head block must be the first block in a file.

The head block starts with a N <name> directive, which sets your name to <name>.

It then may be followed by zero or more H <display> <url> directives, signaling you want to have a link with <display> text that leads to <url>. <display> may contain spaces, but <url> may not.

Example head block:

N John Doe
H duck.com https://duckduckgo.com/
H google.com https://www.google.com/

Area Block

Area blocks represent sections. Examples of areas are "education" and "experience."

Area blocks start with a A <id> directive, which declares an area with <id> which must be unique (this is not the title).

The A directive is then followed by some combination of the following directives:

• T <text> which sets the title of the area to <text>. There should only be one T directive per area.
• C <count> which declares that for resumes, only use <count> entries from this area. Default count is 3. There should only be one C directive per area.
• I <include> which sets that this area should be included in resume or cv. There may be more then one I directive per area.
• D <type> set the format type of the area. Must be either short or tall. Default value is tall. There should only be one D directive per area.

Example area block:

A experience
T Experience
I cv
I resume
C 2

Job Block

Job blocks represent single entries.

Job blocks start with a J <id> directive, which declares a new job in the area <id>.

The J directive is then followed by some combination of the following directives.

• T <text> which sets the title of the job to <text>. There should only be one T directive per job.
• U <text> which sets the subtitle of the job to <text>. There should only be one U directive per job.
• H <display> <url> which declares you want to have a link with <display> that leads to <url>. <display> may contain spaces, but <url> may not. There may be more than one H directive per job.
• B <date>/E <date> set the beginning/end date of the job respectively. Dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. No end date with a beginning date signifies an end date of "present." There may only be one of each B and E directives per job.
• S <text> sets the short description of the job to <text>. There should only be one S directive per job.
• L <text> add a long-description bullet point of <text>. There may be more than one L directive per job.
• D <type> set the format type of the job. Must be either short or tall. Default value is the format type for the area declared in the J directive. There should only be one D directive per job.

Example job block:

J experience
T Professional Cool Guy
U Company
H example.com https://example.com/
B 2015-09-13
E 2017-12-13
S Did cool things.
L Did a cool thing.
L Did another cool guy.

Ideas/Open Questions

• Minimize non-information directives:
  • In an ideal world we could remove the D/I/C directives.
  • This may mean that these three directives would be replaced by two completely different ones.