[Python-Dev] ConfigParser patches

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 12:03 PM 10/2/04 -0500, Skip Montanaro wrote:

>     Guido> This reveals IMO a big mistake in thinking about configuration
>     Guido> files.  The most important user of a config file is not the
>     Guido> programmer who has to get data out of it; the most important user
>     Guido> is the user who has to edit the config file. The outrageous
>     Guido> verbosity of XML makes the above example a complete usability
>     Guido> liability.
>
>Agreed.
>
>What about YaML?  It's human readable/editable and uses indentation to
>denote structure instead of <tags>.  I'd Google for a reference but I'm
>off-net at the moment.

YaML isn't very friendly to non-techies, IMO.  I consider it a very good 
human *readable*  format, but not a human *writable* format.  I honestly 
have an easier time writing XML than YaML, because there are fewer symbols 
to remember, the format is more regular, and I don't have to think as hard 
about what the processor is looking for.

Of course, I *definitely* prefer .ini files to XML, if they are sufficient 
for the use case.