GConf

GConf

Posted Apr 1, 2004 8:14 UTC (Thu) by one2team (guest, #7316)
In reply to: GConf by elanthis
Parent article: A look at GNOME 2.6

GConf would have succeeded in not becoming another Windows registry if the Gnome people have payed more attention to the junk they put in their files.

Using an XML format is not a magic way to get readable files (though it *is* possible to get pleasant XML config files as fontconfig attests). You have to work at it just like you have to work on GUI usability. When one takes a look at actual GConf files it's obvious it's seen my most developpers as just another black-box store. In some files you even have *huge* blobs in unrecognizable format stored in a single XML attribute (ie the developper didn't even bother to think about breaking his info into meaningful tags)

The direct result is any gconf install will be bitrotting as fast as any windows registry - a human just won't be able to clean up the mess, and the apps care just as much as the developpers that designed the file formats - ie not at all.

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