On Sun, 6 Jan 2002, Tim Bunce wrote:
> But different programs may have different syntax or semantics for their .<prog>rc
> files.
I realise that, but that's not what I'm getting at. What I am proposing is
a companion to Parse::PerlConfig. With that module you can parse
configuration files that are actually valid Perl code. While that's useful,
it's hardly user-friendly. Parse::RCfile would allow the parsing and
generation of *human-readable* files which would be much more forgiving in
syntax, and hence, more user-friendly to non-programmers.
The only reason why I proposed this is because you guys accepted
Parse::PerlConfig. This serves the same purpose, just with a differently
syntactical goal.
Yes, this module is does require a specific syntax. That's not the question.
The question is will developers benefit from having a prebuilt
parser/generator that uses a syntax that typical users will find easier to
use? I don't see a module that fills that need on CPAN, unless I'm missing
something.
A little background information: the author of Parse::PerlConfig and I both
wrote our modules in parallel, having worked together. For our applications,
we wrote a wrapper that allowed you to select what RC style you wanted to use
for your RC files -- "Perl" or "Plain". For those applications that needed
very complex data structures, or even subroutines defined with the RC file,
we'd use Parse::PerlConfig. For those apps that needed to be user friendly,
and didn't need that level of complexity, we'd use RCfile. The wrapper would
select the appropriate module support and return the parsed information
accordingly. It even allowed for a single application to use either style,
using environment variables to determine which style it should attempt to
parse.
I just never got around to submitting the module until now. But perhaps now
you know understand where I was headed with this.
--Arthur Corliss
Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
Digital Mages -- http://www.digitalmages.com/
"Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
