On 10/28/2012 2:28 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> The Windows registry. Apparently a lot of people hate it. Tom Kyte
> refers to it as "the Microsoft copy-protection system" (which is odd,
> considering it has absolutely nothing to do with copy-protection...)
> Apparently it's a *really* unpopular system.
>
> The Unix way has always been for programs to populate your home
> directory with thousands of .rc files, each and every one of them in a
> different randomly-designed file format.
>
> But now, there is a new hope for a unified configuration system. They
> call it "Gsettings". And the hilarious thing is that it is COMPLETELY
> ISOMORPHIC TO... the Windows registry.
>
> It consists of a binary file containing a hierarchical tree of named
> folders, containing named keys, which easy have a value of a certain
> well-defined type. (Usually "integer" or "string".) Changing one of
> these settings has immediate effect on the owning application. And, for
> the most part, different application's keys are jumbled up in a random,
> haphazard manner.
>
> ...EXACTLY like the Windows registry.
>
> Yes, it seems the GNU folks hate the Windows registry SO MUCH that they
> went out and added an exact reimplementation of it to their own
> software. :-P So much irony!
>
>
>
> In fairness, it's not /completely/ identical. The folders are called
> "keys" under Windows, whereas Gsettings calls them "schemas". Both
> systems store this stuff in a binary file, but Gsettings loads the key
> definitions from XML files and "compiles" them into binary. Unlike the
> Windows registry, each key has a textual description (which is
> frequently very unhelpful), and a default value to which you can reset
> the key. Oh, and most keys for selecting options use text strings rather
> than weird code numbers. Also, the Windows registry supports storing
> stuff in multiple different "hives", whereas Gsettings apparently does not.
>
> But apart from all this... totally identical. :-P

Snort.. Actually, the problem with the windows registry are:

1. Can't read the damn thing, without the editor.

2. Things don't always uninstall cleanly.

3. There are no safeguards to stop program X from screwing with a key 
for program Y.

This might require some sort of, "mark this key as editable", or 
something, since there may be a few cases where you do want to allow 
this, for specific things.

4. It doesn't clean itself up.

Which is to say, some things you might want to keep, like program 
information for a DVD, or other removable media, but why load in keys, 
and settings, for permanently installed applications, which are no 
longer on the system, let alone keep the data on them, unless its, say, 
just pointers to data, or something that another program, again, maybe 
could need/be given access too?

All of these things make it a pain in the ass. Well, that, and the fact 
that, due to how some of the stuff like linked together in it, its hard, 
and there are no tools for, tracing how all the parts connect, so you 
can either kill all related keys, or figure out which one might have 
broken, like a file open function, pointing at a loader, which points to 
its application, where any one in the chain could be screwed, by they 
are all tied together using long chains of hexadecimal IDs. And, that is 
one of the simple cases...

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