[Discuss] Application config files

[gaf at gapps.blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

.ini does the job. I'll stick with it.

On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 2:08 PM Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
wrote:

> On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 13:40:01 -0400
> Dan Ritter <dsr at randomstring.org> wrote:
>
> > Jerry Feldman wrote:
> > > I have an application that I wrote where I am using a .ini style
> > > file for config. I chose that as an afterthought but maybe JSON,
> > > YAML, or TOML might be better formats. I set it up that way because
> > > I thought my target audience might be more familiar with .ini.
> > > Right now the code has no capability to save the preferences, but
> > > that should be an option, so a more Linuxish config file might be
> > > better. I'm personally very comfortable with both YAML and JSON.
> > > Opinions? (My code is Python3/GTK3).
> >
> > It usually doesn't matter.
> >
> > If it's short, .ini is perfectly fine.
> >
> > If it's a potentially long config file, the best thing you can
> > do is make it capable of reading a directory worth of files
> > to include in the main config, so that replacing a small bit
> > without affecting the rest is easy.
> >
> > include /opt/application/config.d/*
>
> I agree with Dan. Here's why...
>
> JSON is out from the get-go: It's not meant to be read and written by
> humans.
>
> YAML is absolutely wonderful, best thing around, and I use it a lot on
> programs used by me, myself and I. But YAML is beyond the expertise of
> many people, and the absence of a colon could screw everything up.
>
> Ini files suck but everyone understands them, and as Dan said, if you
> want your hierarchy to go deeper than 2 levels, refer to a directory
> full of ini files.
>
> If I'd seen this thread 3 years ago, I'd have structured the data for
> UMEN2 as a tree of ini files.
>
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/projects/umenu2/
>
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> July 2019 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques
>      of the Successful Technologist
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Treasurer, Boston Linux and Unix
http://www.blu.org