At what point does a config file become a programming language?

Question

I have been mulling over config files and their relationship to code for a while now and depending on the day and direction of the wind my opinions seem to change. More and mor

Answer 1

Yes, config files should be simple. They should contain no 'logic' themselves - think of them as a list of expressions in if statements, not the conditional statements in their entirety.

They're there to allow the user to decide which of the options coded within the application should be used, so don't try to make them complicated, it'll end up being self-defeating - you may end up writing simple config files to control how the original config file should be configured otherwise!