For information on "rc files", see the RC file. This page describes a utility command for parsing application-specific RC files.
CMcC 2008Sep1 was looking for a way to read configuration into dicts and such.
I wanted something like subst to perform variable and functional substitution, but which guaranteed the resultant form would be list-like, if the input was. I also wanted the ability to intersperse comments in the configuration structure. What I really wanted was a tcl-like little-language for configuration.
The following proc ignores lines which are commented like tcl source, and substitutes [] and $-forms. Its output is a list of fully substituted tcl-like words. It may be nested.
Caveat: The little language isn't completely coherent and consistent, in that the characters ; and # always have special literal significance as commencing comments. I'm prepared to tolerate that inflexibility in exchange for speed and ease of parsing, but it may not suit you.
proc rc {text} {
set accum ""
set result {}
foreach line [split $text \n] {
set line [string trim $line]
if {$line eq ""} continue
lassign [split $line {\#;}] line
append accum " " [string trim $line]
if {$accum ne "" && [info complete $accum]} {
set pass [uplevel 1 list $accum]
lappend result {*}$pass
set accum ""
}
}
return $result
}Lars H: Have you considered using an empty interpreter instead?