Alternatives
Starting with Windows 95, Microsoft began strongly promoting the use of Windows registry over the INI file.
More recently, XML-based configuration files have become a popular choice for encoding configuration in text files. XML allows arbitrarily complex levels and nesting, and has standard mechanisms for encoding binary data. INI files are typically limited to two levels (sections and properties) and do not handle binary data well. Additionally, data serialization formats, such as JSON and YAML can serve as configuration formats. These three alternative formats can nest arbitrarily, but have a more heavyweight syntax than the INI file.
Read more about this topic: INI File
Famous quotes containing the word alternatives:
“The last alternatives they face
Of face, without the life to save,
Being from all salvation weaned
A stag charged both at heel and head:
Who would come back is turned a fiend
Instructed by the fiery dead.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The literal alternatives to [abortion] are suicide, motherhood, and, some would add, madness. Consequently, there is some confusion, discomfort, and cynicism greeting efforts to “find” or “emphasize” or “identify” alternatives to abortion.”
—Connie J. Downey (b. 1934)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)