Re: A standard package for config files is needed

[Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>]

tmoran@acm.org writes:

> It appears to me you are suggesting that instead
> I should write code to convert every element of Shelf_Palettes to a string
> and write it out preceded with some suitable, human understandable,
> "name=", and also write code to read such stuff back in, complete with
> error handling when the user has botched up that text file.  That would be
> a tremendous regression and I can't imagine anybody doing it.  

For this application, the registry (or at least some sort of binary
storage) is clearly better.

> Why should the config file be an easily edited ASCII file? 

There are times when either a human or a config script needs to edit a
configuration setting. For example, the absolute path to the bin
directory, or the lib directory, or the pdf directory. There were many
times in Windows apps when I wish I could have changed D:\ to E:\ in
the apps config, because I installed a new zip drive and everything
moved! 

> Did everyone enjoy editing .ini files in old Windows so much? 

Not "enjoy" so much as "needed to".

I suppose the RegEdit tool satisfies this need on Windows. If we can
guarrantee the existence of a similar tool on all other systems, the
requirement for human editable goes away. I _know_ I will have an
ASCII text editor on any system I will use; I don't know I will have a
"registry editor".

> How often in current Windows programs do users modify the config by
> doing things in the app (like the color palette above), and how
> often do Windows users change a configuration by using regedit?

Perhaps not "very often", but "often enough" that it is a perceived
need.

I believe we need both the "registry style" and the "ini file style"
of config settings. Part of this discussion is to figure out where to
draw the line between them.

The registry supports simultaneous access by multiple processes; that
can be very useful. ini files don't; that can also be useful. So that
is one clear line between them.

One thing I'm looking for in "config files" is to be able to specify
the file name on the command line of the app (or in a user dialog, or
some such). This allows customizing specific instances of an app.

> The Windows registry certainly is an all too common failure point
> and as a sort of parallel file system it's painful to backup/restore
> or uninstall programs, but improvements in config files are not, I
> suggest, to be found in better syntaxes for an ASCII text file.

Well, ok. Where are improvements to be found?

-- 
-- Stephe