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From: Pabbisetty.henr@XEROX.COM (Nagesh Pabbisetty)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: WHITE PAPER:  Enhancing the X resource file syntax
Message-ID: <900925-101302-1086@Xerox>
Date: 25 Sep 90 17:12:45 GMT
Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 52

The current resource-naming syntax is:
	MyApp*file_menu.btn1.foreground:  white
	MyApp*file_menu.btn1.background:  black
	MyApp*file_menu.btn1.borderColor: red
	....
	MyApp*file_menu.btn1.xxxx:        yyyy

You proposed the following syntax:
	MyApp*file_menu.btn1.foreground: white
      	-.background:                    black
     	-.borderColor:                   red


Using the convention I propose, the above example will be translated into:

	[MyApp*file_menu.btn1]
	foreground:  white
	background:  black
	borderColor: red
	....
	xxxx:        yyyy

PROPOSED CONVENTION
--------------------
	[sectionName]
	itemName: itemValue
	itemName: itemValue
	...
	itemName: itemValue
	<one or more blank lines>
	
Here, the sectionName states the entire widget hierarchy upto the last
level. The last level items are specified as "itemName: itemValue" in this
section on separate lines. Each section should be terminated by 1 or more
blank lines.

This way, it could force all the application defaults related to a
widget/tool to be grouped at one location in each defaults file. So, in
parsing, all that needs to be done is to search for the path (sectionName)
and then read all defaults until a blank line is read.

Any comments?

- nagesh

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