2007-01-15, 09:52
This may be too much of a change to ask for, but I think it could make upgrading to new releases a little bit easier without having to change the default configuration.
If all the default XML files were kept in, for example, Q:\DefaultData\ and then any changes to the default settings were saved to Q:\UserData\, then even if there are changes to the defeault XML files in a new release the user could keep his old settings from UserData. Of course, if there are significant changes to the XML file structures, or an old setting is removed, then the custom XML settings in UserData might not work. However, this would give the user a relatively compact reference to his custom settings. Then at least it would be easy to quickly see which default settings should be changed in order to get back to the user's previous custom settings.
I don't know how this would affect the way all those settings are loaded. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to load the custom settings in UserData, then load all the default settings in DefaultData (that weren't already loaded from UserData).
Anyway, it was just a thought I had to make upgrading a bit smoother...probably too much work to be worth the effort.
If all the default XML files were kept in, for example, Q:\DefaultData\ and then any changes to the default settings were saved to Q:\UserData\, then even if there are changes to the defeault XML files in a new release the user could keep his old settings from UserData. Of course, if there are significant changes to the XML file structures, or an old setting is removed, then the custom XML settings in UserData might not work. However, this would give the user a relatively compact reference to his custom settings. Then at least it would be easy to quickly see which default settings should be changed in order to get back to the user's previous custom settings.
I don't know how this would affect the way all those settings are loaded. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to load the custom settings in UserData, then load all the default settings in DefaultData (that weren't already loaded from UserData).
Anyway, it was just a thought I had to make upgrading a bit smoother...probably too much work to be worth the effort.
