Dictionnary vs Class for configuration

[Robert Brewer]

Famille Delorme wrote:
> I wrote a program in Python for a school project and I am in trouble.
> I have make a Python script called conf.py. This file 
> contains  dictionnarys
> for configuration like this:
> config_sql = {
>                 "DATABASE" : "nanana",
>                 "USERDB" : "bob",
>                 "PASSWORD" : "********"
>                     }
> config_script = {
>                 "TIMETOSLEEP" : 100
>                 "PATH" : "/home/script"
>                 }
> The config_section variable is included in each modules 
> (script python) used
> in my program
> (with from config.py import config_section)
> And the use is like this
>     from conf.py import config_sql
>     print config["DATABASE"]
> 
> But my master say it's better to do a class like this
> class config :
>     def __init__(self, part=="") :
>         if (part=="SQL") :
>             self.database="nanana"
>             self.userdb="bob"
>             self.password="*******"
>         elif (part=="SCRIPT") :
>             self.timetosleep=10
>             self.path="/home/script"
>         ....
> 
> and the use like this
>     from conf.py import config
>     cfg=config("SQL")
>     print cfg.database
> 
> We have do only a file for configuration because the 
> administrator is no
> searching for configuration.
> I want know :
>  - what is more faster, dictionnary method or class method?
>  - what use more ram memory ?
>  - if you are administrator, what method you like for 
> configure program ?
> 
> Note:
>     *  the class will not have methods, it is not necessary.
>     * the program is composed of several modules which import
> config_section.

People who install your code are 'deployers' of that code. When you use
'import' to load configuration data from a Python module, you force your
deployers to learn Python. This is a bad choice, in my opinion.
Therefore, both methods are insufficient.

Look at the ConfigParser module for a better way to maintain data which
is provided by your deployers.


Robert Brewer
MIS
Amor Ministries
fumanchu at amor.org