align ini & registry - settings

Yahoo Serious · Post by **Yahoo Serious** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:01 am

I just moved to a different company, and took along my old .ini for EDP. since I use a newer version of EDP now, and encountered some 'problems', I saved the new options and looked around in the registry.

It looks like not all settings are saved to the .ini (anymore?). This makes it hard to keep different settings-files or move them along to a new workplace. E.g., it seems that the "Show options changed message" is not saved to the .ini anymore.

It does seem to be saved to the registry "Show options changed message", so one could move the registry branch along. However, I always dislike messing with the registry. Why not just 'synchronize/align' the 'export to .ini'-settings with the registry settings?

Cheers, Yahoo

Post by **psguru** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:21 am

I already replied in another thread: your INI file could help. It's hard to talk about the problem in general terms.

Yahoo Serious · Post by **Yahoo Serious** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:35 am

Burt this time I mean the difference between the .ini and the .reg for a single version. I was hoping these would be the same, so one can carry the same settings along, without bothering with the registry.

When you export the registry (and convert it to Ansi) and then compare it to the .ini, ignoring the actual values and name quotation with the regexp:
=[A-z0-9:"(), -]+|"

After some manual aligning, one will notice:

* the name differences:
"Blanks" vs. "whitespace",
"Dir" vs. "Directory Printer/Screen",
"[Printer] Font" vs "File Screen/Printer Font",
"Equal" vs. "Same",
"View .. filter", "Hex", "column"

* some order differences

* and, more important, also the fact that the .reg has more items, e.g. the following two blocks:

"Show newline warning"=dword:00000001
"Show edit undo warning"=dword:00000000
"Show diff combo message"=dword:00000001
"Show identical names message"=dword:00000001
"Show identical text files message"=dword:00000001
"Show identical bin files message"=dword:00000001
"Show identical directories message"=dword:00000001
"Show different text files message"=dword:00000000
"Show different bin files message"=dword:00000000
"Show different directories message"=dword:00000000
"Show options changed message"=dword:00000000
"Show re-compare on View Filter message"=dword:00000000
"Show comparison too slow message"=dword:00000001
"Show Regex message"=dword:00000001
"Show ReadOnly message"=dword:00000001
"Show PlugIn message"=dword:00000001
"Show Check For Updates message"=dword:00000001
"Show Word Wrap message"=dword:00000001
"Show # Of Diffs column message"=dword:00000001
"Show invalid manual synchronization links messages"=dword:00000001
"Show plug-in balloons"=dword:00000001
"No Dir Sizes"=dword:00000001

"Use View Filter"=dword:00000000
"Ignore the ignores"=dword:00000001
"Recompare on Options change"=dword:00000001
"Recompare on View Filter"=dword:00000001
"Use DisableWordWrap"=dword:00000001
"File 1"="C:\\Develop2006\\System Wide\\General\\App Classes\\DmU4FTPClient.pas"
"File 2"="C:\\Projecten\\T@xConnector\\mw u4ABapi\\App Classes\\DmU4FTPClient.pas"
"Compare Files"=dword:00000001
"Binary"=dword:00000000
"Compare Dialog X"=dword:00000032
"Compare Dialog Y"=dword:00000032
"Compare Dialog CX"=dword:000001f1
"Compare Dialog CY"=dword:000000ee
"Run in new instance"=dword:00000000
"Active Page"=dword:00000001
"View whitespace"=dword:00000000
"View EOLs"=dword:00000000
"Diff File"="diff.txt"
"Diff HTML File"="diff.htm"
"No Changed"=dword:00000000
"File Dlg List Style"=dword:00000000
"Time Delay For Monitoring File Operatios"=dword:00000064
"Time Delay For Monitoring File Save"=dword:000003e8
"Time Delay For Slow Comparison Message"=dword:00007530
"Time Delay For Change Notification"=dword:00000005
"Use Last Session"=dword:00000001
"Auto-Save Session"=dword:00000001
"Assume Same Linebreaks"=dword:00000000
"Show Top Bar"=dword:00000001
"Wide Splitter"=dword:00000001
"PeekMessage Tick Increment"=dword:000001f4
"Auto recompare on links"=dword:00000001
"Window X"=dword:00000000
"Window Y"=dword:00000000
"Window CX"=dword:00000500
"Window CY"=dword:000003e4
"Window Maximized"=dword:00000000
"Vertical Split Size"=dword:00000269
"Horizontal Split Size"=dword:000001c0
"Split Vertically"=dword:00000001
"Match Case"=dword:00000000
"Whole Word"=dword:00000000
"Reg Exp"=dword:00000000
"Bin Match Case"=dword:00000000
"Bin Data Type"=dword:00000000
"Wrap Search"=dword:00000001

Post by **psguru** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:43 pm

After some manual aligning, one will notice:

* the name differences:
"Blanks" vs. "whitespace",
"Dir" vs. "Directory Printer/Screen",
"[Printer] Font" vs "File Screen/Printer Font",
"Equal" vs. "Same",
"View .. filter", "Hex", "column"

Yes, this is our legacy now. It's hard to change these things without breaking compatibility for the users of older versions. On the other hand, the Registry settings are not supposed (in general) to be looked at and changed by the user.

* some order differences

* and, more important, also the fact that the .reg has more items, e.g. the following two blocks

Some of these are not options, and some are not used anymore. Really, just the internal stuff.

Yahoo Serious · Post by **Yahoo Serious** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:37 am

Well, if these settings are really missing in the .ini (not just because I happen to have the defaults, or whatever), it seems like I would have to either carry along my registry, or manually set all these settings again. In that case you might as well drop the use of an .ini altogether?

Seems to me like it should not be that hard, to extend the .ini to storing the same properties as the registry (even with different names). This is especially handy when system administrators (or Vista?), don't want the new user to manually edit the registry.

Of course you can skip the internally used 'temporary' values (although I personally don't think the registry should be used for that).

Post by **psguru** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:49 pm

Well, if these settings are really missing in the .ini (not just because I happen to have the defaults, or whatever), it seems like I would have to either carry along my registry, or manually set all these settings again. In that case you might as well drop the use of an .ini altogether?

The INI files are only used when the user decides to save/load options from the Options dialog. That's why the INI files only contain data that represent the options. The Registry, on the other hand, contains all application settings and user options.

Seems to me like it should not be that hard, to extend the .ini to storing the same properties as the registry (even with different names). This is especially handy when system administrators (or Vista?), don\'t want the new user to manually edit the registry.

Users almost never have to edit the Registry settings. The only exceptions include a handful of advanced options that re not exposed via the GUI.