Tom Brown wrote in a message to Jonathan de Boyne Pollar:

 TB> 1) I like to use an environment variable instead of an INI
 TB> entry to point to my .INI file.  This way, I can install my
 TB> applications by simply copying files and editing the
 TB> config.sys.

I have a much better suggestion.  Have your EXE file determine which
directory it is running from, and use a default INI file there.  This will
be sufficient for 95% of the cases your program is used.  For the
exceptions, allow an environment variable or command line switch to
override the default.  You must be careful to provide for cases where the
EXE is located on a network, and in which users either will need different
INI files or will not have write permission for the directory in which the
EXE is located.

 TB> 2) I much prefer to use text mode .INI files for easier 
 TB> editing. 

I agree with this.

 TB> The thing that has been bugging me about point 1 is that it
 TB> requires me to boot my PC.  I'm getting to the point where I
 TB> get really annoyed whenever I have to boot my PC.  The user
 TB> INI file would allow me to solve this problem, but feel
 TB> weird about messing with it.

My suggestion fixes this 95% of the time if you use an environment variable
override, or 100% of the time if you use a command line switch override.

 TB> My problem with point 2 is that the code I wrote to handle
 TB> this (3 C++ classes: Profile, ProfileSection, and
 TB> ProfileEntry) really bloat out my code.  The first 2 classes
 TB> inherit from ISequence, which makes them fairly expensive in
 TB> terms of code size.  The OS/2 API adds roughly nothing to my
 TB> executible size and probably executes faster.  BTW, I would
 TB> be happy to share this code with anyone who is interested. 

Look at lex and yacc for generic techniques.  The OS/2 API code resides in
system DLLs, while your own functions obviously have to reside in your own
modules.  This is an inevitable trade-off, but I can't see your own
functions being very large.

 TB> It would be great if there were standards, or at least
 TB> prefered method outlining this sort of thing in detail by a
 TB> source of authority.   

Well, you can quote me.
 
-- Mike


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