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ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 01:43
by noir
Hello, i was wondering why you are using ini file's to store settings instead of XML or a db of some kind (also doesn't ini files have a 64kb limitation?).

Re: ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 03:12
by j_c_hallgren
My presumption is they are nice and easy to work with, easily edited by anyone for tweaking and don't have a lot of extra overhead that XML does, for example...I like the fact that I can view it without any need for fancy editor.

Re: ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 05:05
by noir
well its not really the issue of easy editing, its the the Windows API limitation to 64kb, maybe with some tweaks you can make it larger, with history etc stored im thinking you could push to this limit pretty easy then could possibly break the program saving options since more data cant be stored anymore.

as for xml you can use any old editor to edit it, db can be a little harder but can be over more efficient with larger data.

Re: ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 07:49
by admin
Where have you heard about that limit? I only know about a limit in the individual value size (32,767 characters) for each key. But even that is irrelevant for XY because I do all INI stuff myself (not using API). :)

Re: ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 08:28
by noir
i guess if you do your own method of handling the ini its ok, i was just researching ini storage and came across a few articles saying ini's are limited to 64kb , and 32k per section if using the windows api , so thought id ask :)

Re: ini file - windows limitation?

Posted: 17 Jun 2009 10:56
by PeterH
noir wrote:as for xml you can use any old editor to edit it, db can be a little harder but can be over more efficient with larger data.
You *could* edit really *every* file with a hex-editor. :? But I don't think you would like it?
And for me native editing of an xml is not much better than editing in hex :evil: