Re: [Dri-devel] Configuration file format survey

[Peter F. L. <fi...@di...>]

On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Ian Romanick wrote:

> As far as caching goes, I guess I don't understand.  Does that mean that
> if someone changes settings while an OpenGL application is running, the
> changes will take effect in the running app?  Will it only take effect
> if the app creates a new rendering context?  I had always just assumed
> that we would take a snap-shot of the settings when the app created its
> first context.

(messy post, I know -- sorry)

http://perkypants.org/projects/gnome-2.0-interviews/gconf/
http://developer.gnome.org/feature/archive/gconf/gconf.html
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/gconf/
http://developer.gnome.org/feature/archive/gconf/gconf.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/gconf/?topic_id=809

The author, Havoc Pennington, presented a journal article on it at Ottawa
Linux Symposium 2002.  It begins on page 414 in the proceedings:
http://www.linux.org.uk/~ajh/ols2002_proceedings.pdf.gz

gconf works outside of Gnome.  The current back-end uses XML files.
It supports defaults and locked down configuration items at the sysadmin's
discretion -- the remaining stuff can be changed by an ordinary user.

There is a GUI editor for changing the configuration settings without
having to much with XML.

Programs can "watch" a configuration entry and react instantly if it is
modified.

This is just to inform people that instantaneous reactions to
configuration changes is possible... I'm not trying to push for an
overengineered design - in fact it gives me the willies when people here
say "XML is cool".  XML is typically not used in a way that I would call
simple.

-Peter