From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,47bc849aad30d586 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-30 22:30:26 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!mango.news.easynet.net!easynet-melon!easynet.net!psiuk-p2!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: A standard package for config files is needed Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 16:00:12 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <4519e058.0205291059.737616ec@posting.google.com> <4519e058.0205300952.192e8274@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1022788813 20621 136.170.200.133 (30 May 2002 20:00:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 May 2002 20:00:13 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:25052 Date: 2002-05-30T20:00:13+00:00 List-Id: "Ted Dennison" wrote in message news:4519e058.0205300952.192e8274@posting.google.com... > > o Useability - On many systems the whole point of a configuration > file is that it can be edited off-line without using any special tools > or programs. I think that depends on what sort of usage model one puts forth for it. If the model is to have the program check its registry and update anything (based on user interaction or other means) that it must have in order to run, then it doesn't have to come from a text file. This has the advantage that it doesn't need to do any error checking, parsing, etc. You just read it and write it as a stream. I see the point of going to ASCII. But then its got to do a lot more work & I'm not sure there's enough value to outweigh the negatives. If its got to be in ASCII, I'd like to see it in an XML format - so we'd have an excuse to need an XML parser & DOM as part of Grace. :-) Including that would add a lot more value. > o Portability - Use of this package should not, in and of itself, > render a system non-portable. It would be almost impossible to come up > with a binary format that is portable. It can be done, but using text > as the format is probably the easiest way. > You mean "Portability" in the sense of writing the INI/Registry on one system and moving the file to another system? Depending on how its used, I don't think it would need to do that very much. If its saving installation information and locations of various important files/directories, that is going to be system dependent anyway. If its remembering a user's preferences, installing somewhere else probably is for a different user and/or isn't going to be that big a deal for a user to reconfigure anyway. I can't think of any circumstances where I'd want to lift the Registry from Windows and move it to a Unix system. Why would I care that I can't do this with the AdaINIRegistry? > > You are absolutely right that this opens a big can of worms as to what > the proper format should be. That's why I'm most interested in if its > possible to reach some kind of consensus on what the format should be. > XML - maybe its overkill, but it means developing other things that can be used in other places. We create more leverage. > Just to lift another rock; I've seen programs that use CSV for > configuration files. This allows the files to be easily manipluated > with common database or spreadsheet tools. It also allows for easy > addition of all sorts of attributes. Never seen that and wouldn't know how to comment on it. No reason why a self-contained Ada package for Ada programming purposes would need to do anything other than whatever we want it to do, so I doubt it would have to utilize CSV or anything else. It doesn't have to be backwards-compatible. It has to satisfy the needs of some large body of Ada programmers & that's about it. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com