Re: [avrdude-dev] avrdude.conf

[E. Weddington]

On 14 Feb 2003 at 9:47, Joerg Wunsch wrote:

> If/when we go to the dual file method (generic include file, and
> separate user-customizable file), there's no longer a reason to mark
> this file as "sample".
> 
> However, i think for Unix systems, we then need three files: the
> generic include file that just contains the part definitions etc., a
> system-wide config file that can e. g. describe the default programmer
> hardware, location of communication ports etc. for all users on that
> machine, and a per-user override file (~/.avrduderc) for
> personalization.
> 
> Under Windows, the latter is probably the purpose of
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE vs. HKEY_LOCAL_USER registry keys, but Eric's more
> competent here.

I'd rather keep stuff out of the Windows registry. Any code to write 
to it is of course going to be Windows specific. Whereas keeping it 
to config files is still cross-platform. I would suggest keeping the 
number of files to a minimum if possible. I don't have a specific 
number in mind. Because Windows users either prefer things as simple 
as possilbe or they are novice users, the easier it is to use the 
better. 

This is one reason why I suggested perhaps using XML for the future. 
One possible way of doing this would be to have a config directory 
which would include many XML files. One XML file per programmer, one 
per part, and a "setup" file that could contain default 
settings(port, programmer, part, etc.). That way when an avrdude 
update occurs, if there are new programmers supported, or new parts 
supported, a singular config file doesn't get overwritten, just new 
XML files are added. A user could write a custom programmer 
definition without disturbing other definitions.

Food for thought.

Eric