Possible Future Feature: INI Parsing for Engine Configuration (replacing edge2.cfg)

[Corbachu]

I would like to take some time and weigh in options about using the INI format as a replacement to our own CFG file that EDGE creates. I would like to move to something more robust as far as the configuration file is concerned. Using something more modern like INI over our engine-created CFG file could yield benefits, and increase neatness.

Plus, I would like to move the CFG configuration as a whole into an 'autoexe.cfg', much like how QUAKE does it, so modders can set hard limits/switches/cvars/etc in their mods. EDGE would look for 'autoexec.cfg' in the mod folder or EPK root. We don't need to support this for WAD format, only external directories or EPK/PK3/PK7 archives.

I know we have a .preset file, but I feel that was only a temporary solution to what we want to achieve.

• With INI, we could get rid of 'EDGE2.cfg' and just opt for edge-[user].ini, much like how ZDoom does now.
• Move the CFG configuration out of the root and use it for user-definable switches in mods, while renaming the file 'autoexec.cfg', much like how 'edge.preset' acts, but this would of course be more robust as it would technically clone EDGE2.cfg in some aspects.
• Library I am referencing below is built in C and is really lightweight, or we could create our own.
• Remove volatile 'edge.preset'

This would also give us the advantage when we eventually redo the EDGE IWAD interface as we can have per-engine INI configuration files (Doom, Rise of the Triad, Heretic, etc), or we could keep those contained to EDGE's existing CFG files.

Fellow developers: I would like your suggestions and/or thoughts on this topic (@raa-eruanna @ChillyWillyGuru /etc)

This idea came from the following GIT project: INIH

[JNechaevsky]

It is also small but important addion for Windows users who are using only standard notepad and/or not very friendly with 3rd part software. The benefit is simple - on Windows, .INI files are initially opened with notepad, while .CFG are not. So this way, config file will be editable by one (well, two actually) simple mouse clicks, which is a good way to go. :thumbsup:

[Corbachu]

@JNechaevsky me and @ctd1500 are looking into integrating TOML (skystrife/cpptoml) for the main engine configuration file - trying to settle on a naming convention, which I'm thinking could be:

[username]-edge-config.ini And using INI as the extension as opposed to TOML - only because INI is standard (though we could def change that) ;-)

As I've said before, CFG could be kept for an autoexec.cfg feature (like QUAKE), or we could abandon the format altogether and just use TOML for autoexec mod-specific variables/cvars.

[DaZombieKiller]

I would definitely be in support of TOML, it's essentially a standardized version of INI and is just overall far, far superior.

[usernameak]

I tried to implement this and found a major issue: #69.

[Corbachu]

Implemented and closing.