[dev] 2.3.x installer

[Brent J. Nordquist]

On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Jon Parise <jon@csh.rit.edu> wrote:

> Also, certain configuration settings are limited to a fixed set of
> possibile values (true or false, numbers, a set of known drivers).
> Therefore, our .dist-style comments may end up looking like this:
>
> // This is a description line.
> // This is another description line.
> // [integer]
> $conf['foo']['number'] = 0;
>
> The [type] could be one of the following: string, boolean, integer,
> set,

Yes, my thinking was moving in that direction also... you need something
like that for a wizard to be able to validate.  Good.  Now:

> I'm not entirely sure that's the best possible syntax, but it works
> for explanatory purposes.

...you know the conclusion that I reached along this train of thought?
Configuration files as XML documents.  No, no, wait, I can hear the groan
from here, but at least toy with the thought for a moment:  XML provides a
way to mandate a well-formed document, the parser is already there to
read/validate it, types are there, it copes with missing and extra tags
(forward/backward compatibility), you can use richer style tags in the
prose descriptions...  Wow.

OK, _now_ you can tell me "not going to happen".  Well, it was a fun
little thought (for me anyway).  :-)

-- 
Brent J. Nordquist <bjn@horde.org>
Yahoo!: Brent_Nordquist / AIM: BrentJNordquist / ICQ: 76158942




>From chuck@horde.org Date: Thu,  8 Feb 2001 23:58:41 -0500
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Date: Thu,  8 Feb 2001 23:58:41 -0500
From: Chuck Hagenbuch <chuck@horde.org>
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Subject: Re: [dev] 2.3.x installer

Quoting "Brent J. Nordquist" <bjn@horde.org>:

> Configuration files as XML documents.

Well, it would certainly be great, and it's crossed my mind before. However, 
I'm guessing that the overhead of parsing an xml configuration file on every 
page load isn't going to be good for us. So:

a). Someone can do some performance tests and prove me wrong.

b). We can make the .dist file XML, and require everyone to either write their 
conf files by hand (from the xml - not as convenient as copying and editing 
a .dist) or use a tool - making it a requirement that the tool be readily 
available.

Neither of those is completely impossible.

While we're on the topic of formats, though, are we actually gaining anything 
by having the prefs config file be a text file that we parse, instead of just 
php code like the other files?

-chuck

--
Charles Hagenbuch, <chuck@horde.org>
"My intuitive grasp of math often leads me astray." -Me