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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham 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: 2002-06-03 15:44:26 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!proxad.net!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!news-x2.support.nl!psinet-eu-nl!psiuk-p4!uknet!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: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 09:23:10 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <3CF5D7AC.975B0DB3@cs.tu-berlin.de> <4519e058.0205310825.868fe4a@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1023110591 29966 136.170.200.133 (3 Jun 2002 13:23:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Jun 2002 13:23:11 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:25280 Date: 2002-06-03T13:23:11+00:00 List-Id: 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" 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