Saying this is clearly superior means you don’t keep your lists sorted. A sorted list is as likely to add something to the beginning as the end, where this solution has the same problem.

I just reverse the sort order when that case happens.

The only correct syntax/format

    [
      , a
      , b
      , c
    ]

If only there existed a language designer intelligent enough to support it

You want yaml

    key:
      - a
      - b
      - c

Thank you for the humor!

I'm just suddenly slightly terrified someone's going to see this and think it's genuinely a good idea and make it part of the next popular scripting language, where lists are defined by starting commas or something :S

Lisp:

  (
    a
    b
    c
  )