On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Eli Marmor wrote:
>
> * Migration from the current ASCII "CONF" format to binary format or
> database-based format. There are zillion GUI's for Apache (just as an
> example), and none is good, because it's impossible to develop a GOOD
> GUI for an ASCII-based configuration file. I guess that everybody is
> going to laugh at the "REGISTRY" and other MS stuff, but handling
> ASCII CONF files, with VI/emacs, when you are a dummy, is impossible.
> (I know that many people don't agree with this point, but I don't
> want to start a new argument, although I have a lot of experience and
> knowledge in this field; The last line remains the same:
> COMPATIBILITY).
Some XML-based format may be a resonable comppormise between
"machine-parsable" and "human-edible". Maybe. One big config file is
always a source of troubles.
Actually, we already have some examples of programs with relatively
complex configs (mozilla, KDE), and a very common "debugging" procedure is
'please {delete|rename} the ~/.{kde|mozilla} directory.
I have a feeling that one big registry will make things even worse.
What happens when those configs are lost?
(dont tell me anything about automatic backups. We all know that this is
something that is bound to fail sooner or later, as in windows 98)
--
Tzafrir Cohen
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir
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