Changing application's behavior without recompiling

[lancer6238]

Hi,

I've read of people writing applications that use data "stored" in a
XML file, and when they update the XML file, the application is aware
of it and behave accordingly, without the need to recompile. I'm new
to XML, and this feature seems really interesting and useful to me,
but I can't wrap my head around how this is done. Can someone either
explain or point me somewhere where I can find out more about this,
especially when writing C applications?

Thank you.

Regards,
Rayne

 

[Mayeul]

Hi,

I've read of people writing applications that use data "stored" in a
XML file, and when they update the XML file, the application is aware
of it and behave accordingly, without the need to recompile. I'm new
to XML, and this feature seems really interesting and useful to me,
but I can't wrap my head around how this is done. Can someone either
explain or point me somewhere where I can find out more about this,
especially when writing C applications?

Looks to me like the whole point of configuration files. Configuration
files are read by applications so that they know how to behave when
meeting that kind of configuration. Thus sparing the need to recompile
if you want to change your default font size or button colors.

Not specific to XML in any way. Or did I miss something in your question?

 

[Joe Kesselman]

Looks to me like the whole point of configuration files. Configuration
files are read by applications so that they know how to behave when
meeting that kind of configuration. Thus sparing the need to recompile
if you want to change your default font size or button colors.

Not specific to XML in any way. Or did I miss something in your question?

Well, a lot of applications are now using XML for their configuration
files, just to avoid having to invent yet another syntax... but it's
still the application's responsibility to read and respond to the info
contained in the config file.

 

[Peter Flynn]

Hi,

I've read of people writing applications that use data "stored" in a
XML file, and when they update the XML file, the application is aware
of it and behave accordingly, without the need to recompile. I'm new
to XML, and this feature seems really interesting and useful to me,
but I can't wrap my head around how this is done. Can someone either
explain or point me somewhere where I can find out more about this,
especially when writing C applications?

This may be config files, as Mayeul and Joe suggest, but it also smacks
of setups like Cocoon, where the output is generated afresh in real time
on each access, so the moment the source data is updated, the next hit
gets the new output.

So in that sense, nothing needs to be recompiled, although the source or
the pipeline and transformation code needs to be re-read each time any
of them change (and cached for subsequent re-use). Bu it's Java, not C.

///Peter