[David Frascone <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> ...which wouldn't allow different users on the same machine to have
> different settings for the parameters.
> 
> I might suggest either that
> 
> 	1) there be both a "${libdir}/ethereal/ethereal.conf" file *and*
> 	   a "~/.ethereal/ethereal.conf" file, with settings in the
> 	   latter overriding settings in the former

I like this one.

> (I use "${libdir}" to refer to the directory in which the file appears -
> it might be "/usr/lib" if Ethereal was configured to be installed in
> "/usr/lib", or, instead, we might go for "/usr/share" or
> "/usr/local/share", as, so far, all files in "~/.ethereal" are, I think,
> text files, and thus shareable between different platforms.)

I used datadir I think.  Which by default is /usr/local/etc (${prefix}/etc)

> 
> I would have the format instead being
> 
> 	<package-name>.<preference name>: <setting>

This is also much nicer.  As are the rest of your comments.  In the patch that
I posted here is a workable hack.  It uses the packagename:string format,
since that took all of 5 minutes to code.

It does need several enhancements though:

1)	It needs to cache entries (right now it parses the file on EVERY
	lookup.)

2)	It needs a smart parser (very dumb non-white space friendly one now)

3)	It needs to be upgraded to whatever formate we decide, and needs
	to be checked under windows versions.  (I can only build/install
	the unix version)