On Thu, 17 Jun 2010, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
On 17/06/2010, waldo kitty wrote:
besides, XML is a good example as well since everyone and their mother seem
to see it as a huge step forward for some reason...
I can't agree more on this point. Yes, XML has it's uses, but
replacing a INI file with a XML file simply to store some application
settings like "recently opened files", or editor color settings etc is
pretty ridiculous. And yes, Lazarus IDE is a culprit in this too. I
mean, INI is a dead simple file format which FPC and Delphi (and just
about any other language) has very good support for reading/writing
INI files. So why use XML which is much more complex and much harder
to work with. Again Lazarus IDE being an example here. There are
multiple XML reading/writing solutions (inside FCL and LCL and IDE),
all with varying degrees of features and how to use them.
There is a very simple rule of thumb I use.
If it is 'flat' info, I use .ini files. They are easy to use, human
editable, and inifiles is a small unit.
If the info is somehow hierarchical (multi-level), I use XML.
Michael.
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