RE: GNOME registry

["Joshua R. Prismon" <josh narf com>]

At 08:55 AM 12/31/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Stupid microsuck outlook.
>Any way,
>I didn't say remove flat files.
>
>What I am saying is:
>
>create a library, lets just say, somthing like libconfig
>
>a program uses libconfig to get its config information.
>
>program: sendmail
>sendmail calls libconfig telling libconfig it is sendmail
>
>libconfig looks in its default directory, somthing like /etc/libconfig or
>where ever for 
>sendmail.cfg
>
>it opens it and checks the first line for what module to use. If it is LDAP,
>it checks the next line for what server and what context.
>
>if it is the flat file module, it just continues reading the settings from
>that file.

Why should the program care how the libcfg manages configuration information?
Lets go with the proccess of optimal substructure here. If there is a
configuration
library, lets assume that it does it's job better then the regular program
does. (ie,
it provides net access to configuration or some cool features), let it
manage the 
configuration information. Why should the program even care what format the
data is kept in?

To illustrate this, 

Program Gapp calls a configuration service (either thru corba or thru a
library). 
It tells the configuration libaray/service that it wants the settings for
Gapp. 
The configuration library does it's magic. It can:

Look at a system wide "defaults" file, and then overlay a user file. 
Transparently call a LDAP database to figure out the settings. 
Convert it to Active Directory.
Read it from a Hash Key DB. 
Read it from a Text file. 
See that the user has no configuration, and make a new one for that user. 

All transparently. To limit it to a format restricts the room to grow.