Consider this an amateur programmer trying to learn something from a more seasoned one, but iarwain, why did you choose flat .ini files over .xml files or perhaps another established markup language?
You could imagine "SomeGraphic" to be somehow "embedded" inside "SomeObject". What's actually nice is that the relationships this way aren't hierarchical. So, unlike a JSON or XML file, the relationship is not like a tree, but it's like a general graph.
Even though the nested structure of XML might sound conceptually appealing, the tree-like relationships are quite restrictive, and, IMHO, trees fall flat in modelling most interesting concepts.
To sum up, I don't think Orx's inis are any more flat than C or C++ source files.
Data is indeed represented as a disconnected graph whose parts are easy to replace and whose flow is easy to remodel.
It has also the additional advantages to be easy to parse, easy to enhance (think of inheritance) and easy to read. Can't say the same thing about XML.
Comments
You could imagine "SomeGraphic" to be somehow "embedded" inside "SomeObject". What's actually nice is that the relationships this way aren't hierarchical. So, unlike a JSON or XML file, the relationship is not like a tree, but it's like a general graph.
Even though the nested structure of XML might sound conceptually appealing, the tree-like relationships are quite restrictive, and, IMHO, trees fall flat in modelling most interesting concepts.
To sum up, I don't think Orx's inis are any more flat than C or C++ source files.
Data is indeed represented as a disconnected graph whose parts are easy to replace and whose flow is easy to remodel.
It has also the additional advantages to be easy to parse, easy to enhance (think of inheritance) and easy to read. Can't say the same thing about XML.