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

The code of our applications becomes less important... There is scripting, there are all kind of attributes that define the behaviour of classes, methods, method arguments and properties. Users can define database triggers and database constraints. There can be very complicated config files. Sometimes the user can define XSLT stylsheets to manipulate input and output because our systems need to be open (SOA). And there is stuff like BizzTalk that needs complex configuration too. Users can define complex workflows.

We have to write better code to deal with this complex environment, so the code of our applications becomes more important...