>I only have one comment about this -- this is how windows does it.
I have one comment about it too. Windows and OS/2 1.x provide API calls to manipulate the text .INI files. Sure the files are written in a human readable format - that is to allow humans to read them and edit by hand if necessary. Programs are supposed to use the defined APIs for this, and all Windows programmers who know what they are doing use them.
Russell Coker