If the biggest concern in this whole discussion is hand-editing of the config file by "non-techies", why not have a gui for editing the config? I understand the philosophy of allowing people to easily edit configs, but if we want to allow non technical users to make changes, maybe allowing them to directly edit a file by hand isn't the greatest idea.

Limiting the modification of the config file to methods provided by the developer eliminates the issues of validating the config at load time, and reduces support issues in the long run. I store my config data for Perl and C# apps in XML files, and have had no problems with the files being corrupted by an end user. If the user mucks around with the config files on their own, without making a backup first, and causes problems with the application, that is their own fault. They can recreate the configuration, or pay for my time to fix the file by hand.

just my 2 cents.
digger

In reply to Re: Config Files Redux by digger
in thread Config Files Redux by traveler

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.