Question about registers database

[spheris]

Hi,
Falled in love with BeOS/Zeta/Haiku since a lot of years,
I use BeOS every days and i have one question:

• How BeOS parameters are saved ? Ini files, registers database, or sqlite database?

Why do i ask this question?
Because since 2 months, i learn tcl/tk programming language and i try to recreate deskbar/tracker BeOS like on linux in pure tck/tk without non standart librairy.
It’s very early version I’m working hard to have usable one.

You could find my first work here

http://operation.andre.free.fr/beos/

Thanks for your answer.
Fabien

[CodeforEvolution]

Welcome @spheris! That’s a very cool project you have going! BeOS/Haiku parameters are saved in multiple ways (the settings format has yet to be fully standardized).

There are two primary ways however:

Through reading and writing raw data to a file:

• Example found here: https://github.com/haiku/haiku/blob/master/src/apps/expander/ExpanderSettings.cpp#L71
• Pro: Easy to implement on any platform, as you’re essentially working with raw data.
• Con: A change in your settings format may make it not possible for older versions of your program to read settings from a newer version of your program.

Through the use of a “BMessage” and the use of its Flatten() and Unflatten() calls:

• A BMessage is a class that holds “key, value” pairs
• This is what BeOS’s/Haiku’s Deskbar/Tracker uses
• Pro: The API is well documented, as seen here: https://www.haiku-os.org/legacy-docs/bebook/BMessage.html
• Con: The BMessage format is specific to Haiku. You could try to investigate this: https://github.com/HaikuArchives/EasyToolkitAndExtension/ and take a peak at its “EMessage” class. Though the Easy Toolkit isn’t exactly “easy” to use anymore, and hasn’t been updated in quite some time.

I hope this helps you a bit! If you have any other questions, please ask!

[spheris]

To save value, until now i used only text files as this:

key is name of file
value is inside this text file without CR.

well it’s very simple to add key, value in folder.
maybe i should change this solution.
But thanks for your advice!