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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Speeding up kconfig.
From:       Bo Thorsen <bo () sonofthor ! dk>
Date:       2000-09-22 7:33:01
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On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, Andreas Pour wrote:
> ...
>     UConfig consists of a small private database class designed to store
>     Qt 2.x applications configuration data and an editor/viewer to edit
>     the data in the database. Unlike KConfig (KDE's configuration
> storage
>     class), UConfig's data files are stored in binary mode, permitting
>     storage of all data types (including Unicode and QVariant objects).
>     Thus while the configuration files cannot be edited with a simple
> text
>     editor, a wide variety of types may be stored in the database.
> UConfig
>     has a database tree structure and enhanced cache mechanism, enabling
>     fast access to large configuration files (more then 10Mb, which XML
>     parsers can't do). Moreover, UConfig is "crash-resistant": the worst
>     thing that may happen is loosing unsaved data if the application is
>     killed at an inopportune time.
> 
> It comes with a GPL editor as well (like regedit).

NO!!! No binary files please! This has been discussed time and again,
always with the same outcome.

Yes, binary files can speed parsing up some few microseconds, but it is
not worth it. As Waldo's patch shows, it's not the actual parsing that's
pushing your cpu, it's the QString/QCString/Unicode/utf8 stuff. And the
small speed increase is done by introducing a binary parser that is always
less friendly to problems in the file. And changing the format is
hell. Just trying to add a single flag in the config file can render your
entire setup useless.

I don't care what marketing scams the UConfig author tries to pull.
Programs crash, causing your config files to be wrong. And when that
happens you're screwed if the config files are binary.

This is the one thing that Unix has always done right: text config files.

Bo.

-- 

Bo Thorsen
bo@sonofthor.dk
Lahnsgade 31, st.
DK-5000 Odense C
Tlf: +45 66 11 83 85

Rule one of good programmers: anything You can do, I can do better
Rule two of good programmers: anything I can do, You can do better
The Programming Theorem: anything worth doing is worth doing over and over again

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