XYplorer Beta Club

Reading here, I understand that Mr. Lessau doesn't like configuration files as much as some of us who do like them a lot.

I wish that the switch for ini files wasn't tied to a "friendly" name for the ini file but rather included the complete file name. Such as that the shortcuts now defined as "F:\Programs\XYplorer\XYplorer.exe /ini="configfile"", were rather "F:\Programs\XYplorer\XYplorer.exe /ini="configfile.ext"".

If the switch were rewired so that full file names were used rather than the extensionless "friendly" file names, then someone like myself who wished to incorporate a file association for some extension, such as my choice of an "xy file", ".xy" extension, could be used to pass along the configuration file as an argument to xyplorer. So I could double click a pictures.xy configuration file and xyplorer would open up my pictures configuration without some odd link file being used.

And aside from the usefulness of having the switch rewired, I think aesthetically that the extensionless filename requirment is rather bizarre. I don't immediately recall another program that requires an extensionless filename in a parameter. EG, even regsvr32 responds to either "regsvr32 somefile" or "regsvr32 somefile.dll". It doesn't require that the filename NOT have a specific extension which is added.

I love XYPlorer, so I can live with it as it is, but I see no benefit from the extensionless switch and see a minor benefit from using the full filename.
EDIT- I removed the Bold tags because for some reason they didn't work properly when I tried to emphasize ".ext"

toddizok wrote:Reading here, I understand that Mr. Lessau doesn't like configuration files as much as some of us who do like them a lot."

Just curious...how did you reach that conclusion? At least we have a config INI file, as compared to most all pgms that use buried registry keys!

toddizok wrote:I wish that the switch for ini files wasn't tied to a "friendly" name for the ini file but rather included the complete file name.

That seems to be a reasonably simple item that shouldn't have too much of an impact, I would suspect.

toddizok wrote:I think aesthetically that the extensionless filename requirment is rather bizarre. I don't immediately recall another program that requires an extensionless filename in a parameter.

I've run into quite a few over the years myself...and the ability to provide ANY substitute config user named file is a rare item!

I think that was probably done not with any "dislike" of any kind, but to force that configuration files are indeed inside XY directory and called .ini (as they're INI files ) as that's how it works with XY.
That said, to dbl-click on a file to start XY with this config, you'd have to be in XY directory. Why not just use the Load Config menu (which always oen the selection window in the app.path), seems easier to me...

Well, I find an ".xy" extension more bizarre than allowing (and forcing) a "friendly" name for command line switches. A filename consists of base and extension and traditionally base="what the file is used for (its meaning)" and ext="what the file looks like (its form)". XY's configuration files are formally INI-files so they should have the extension ".ini".

Instead of "/ini=myini" I could have done "/ini=myini.ini", but that looked too redundant to me.

BTW, I love INI files!