ConfigParser shootout, preliminary entry

[Steven Bethard]

Carlos Ribeiro <carribeiro <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> In my opinion, we don't have really to make a choice or a concession
> here. A simple parser can be provided, using a simple interface as the
> one defended by David; and a wrapper implementing the "configuration
> object" can also be provided, using class-based access.

Well said!  This is exactly what I was thinking while I read through this
thread.  I imagine to classes would be provided: ConfigParser, which basically
just reads an INI file and yields (key, value) pairs by section, and
ConfigObject, which uses a ConfigParser to read the INI file and then converts
this to attribute-style access.  Personally, I hate having to write in David
Wilson's suggested style:

    for key, value in self._conf.items('general'):
        if key == 'listen port': # no need for ugly underscore
            ...
        elif key == ....
            ...

and would much prefer the attribute access -- but generally, my config files
contain only one value per key.  Providing both classes allows you to use
whichever style is more reasonable to you.

Steve