Re: A standard package for config files is needed

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

If this is how you are using a "Configuration" file then I suggest it is no
longer a "Configuration" file and is instead a "Data" file for your
application. What I (and maybe others) are thinking of is initialization and
user preference data - stuff that is relatively small and specific to a
platform, installation and user. I cannot recall any time in my experience
with using computers where I have wanted to drag this from one machine to
another machine of totally different character. Even if I did - its in the
nature of the beast that it is relatively *small* and shouldn't take hours
to recreate.

Besides, as I said elsewhere, you have no guarantees with Ada that any
*data* files you write are going to be portable across different platforms
and it would seem that the situations you suggest would come up *far* more
often with normal data files. So should we never use any of the Ada I/O
packages? Based on the way I have seen programs used over the years, I just
don't imagine that "configuration" information is going to need to port from
one platform to another often enough that it is worth worrying about. I'd
opt for simplicity and, if done right, the base class could be overriden and
enhanced to support whatever special needs anybody could dream up. I'd take
bets that if there was a binary storage of configuration data that most
people would not bother to override it with an ASCII implementation - but if
it was desirable, it would be an easy extension.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Preben Randhol" <randhol+abuse@pvv.org> wrote in message
news:slrnafhkb6.2qc.randhol+abuse@kiuk0156.chembio.ntnu.no...
>
> But if you have a program like say Matlab and there is a Windows, Mac
> and Linux version of this program, wouldn't it be nice if people could
> use the dumped variables on whatever platform they like to use? I mean
> one may be working on something and then he wants to have somebody else
> looking at what he has done, he shouldn't be forced to use the same
> platform. Or he has Linux on his desktop, but when he travels he has
> only Windows on the laptop, why shouldn't he be allowed to work with the
> files he has worked on in Linux (and visa versa) without problem?
>
> Preben