# load_ini
   # returns undef on error, hashref on success
   sub load_ini($)
   {
      my ($ini) = @_;

      # first, check for all of those special conditions 
      # that you wanted to avoid, like directories, etc:
      return undef if ( -d $ini or ! -r $ini or ! -f $ini );

      my $fh = new FileHandle($ini);
      return undef unless defined $fh;
   
      # read INI here, represent it in a data struct
      my $ini_data = parse_ini($fh);

      # return handy structure (could be an object)
      # that keeps the INI filename in it for later use
      return { ini => $file, data => $ini_data };
   }

   # load_ini_safe
   # same as load_ini, but never "fails"
   sub load_ini_safe($)
   {
      my ($ini) = @_;

      # provide a default if load_ini() fails

      # This would prevent you from saving to the INI file
      # if we load defaults.  But see below...
   #  return load_ini($ini) 
   #      or { ini => undef, ini_data => default_ini() };


      # This will allow you to SAVE the ini settings if you 
      # ONLY have write permissions... (yeah, odd case, 
      # that).
      return load_ini($ini) 
          or { ini => $ini, ini_data => default_ini() };
   }   

   # save_ini
   # returns boolean 1 on success, 0 on failure
   sub save_ini($)
   {
      my ( $ini_struct ) = @_;

      # this is a hash slice, btw...
      my ( $ini, $ini_data ) = %{ $ini_struct }{ qw/ini ini_data/ };

      # check for a valid filename 
      # (could be undef, see load_ini_safe for details)
      return 0 unless $ini;

      # If we keep the filename around from load_ini_safe,
      # then we have to perform the same checks as in
      # load_ini().
      # If we only keep the filename if we could open it,
      # then we don't need to perform these tests
      return 0 if ( -d $ini or ! -r $ini or ! -f $ini );

      # Now, try to open the file for writing.
      my $fh = new FileHandle(">$ini");
      return 0 unless defined $fh;

      # now write the contents out to the filehandle
      # presumably, this returns 1 on success, 0 on failure
      return write_ini( $fh, $ini_data );
   }

   # get_default_ini_data
   # provide default INI hashref
   sub default_ini() {}

   # parse_ini
   # converts text from filehandle into INI hashref 
   sub parse_ini($) {}

   # write_ini
   # writes in-memory INI data structure to file as text
   sub write_ini($\%) {}