[Python-Dev] ConfigParser to save with order

[Tony Meyer]

> I see two paths here:
>
> - Rewrite ConfigParser entirely.
> - Apply my patch.

Allowing 'surgical' editing of configuration files, as has been  
proposed many times both here and c.l.p would not require  
ConfigParser to be entirely rewritten (just more extensive  
modification of the write() method).

> Someone needs to make a PEP. Michael Chermside, in the
> first mail of the first link that you sent, was working in a solution,
> but don't know what is done.

I believe that this always trails off without anything being achieved.

IMO what would be best would be a pronouncement (or something of  
similar weight) about the direction that should be taken wrt to  
configuration file parsing support in the stdlib.

   * The status quo.
   * The status quo, but output files in a fixed order (but unrelated  
to the read order); i.e. http://python.org/sf/1399309
   * 'Surgical' editing of files; i.e. preserve comments, whitespace,  
and ordering, appending new options/sections as needed.
   * A more complex configuration system (perhaps like others that  
exist in the wild).

I'm happy to either submit or help with a patch for the third option  
(and maybe the fourth) if need be.

I haven't personally found the lack of a more complex system in the  
stdlib a problem (although I suppose that the various more complex  
systems I have worked with could have been simplified if there was  
one).  I do believe that failing to preserve comments and ordering is  
a problem.

=Tony.Meyer