Migration Guide : Migrating from Version 8.0.3 : INI file changes introduced by Preference Settings Framework
INI file changes introduced by Preference Settings Framework
Reason for change
A new Preference Settings Framework is available in this release. This framework is optimized to process settings from the INI file contained in stanzas with names matching the names of the Applications that the settings apply to. This means that some reorganization of existing entries in the INI file is needed.
Additionally, the .INI file syntax uses the (; - semicolon) character both for the comment delimiter and for the array of values separator (for example, in the bitmapPath= setting). This makes it impossible to tell the difference between an array of values and a single value followed by a comment.
Change
The following table shows the reorganization changes made in the INI file.
Old Stanza
Old Keyword
New Stanza
New Keyword
Kernel
fplevel
AbtCommonProductInstallerApp
*same*
 
EvaluationLogName
EtBaseTools
*same*
 
AllowOutOfScopeReferences
*deleted – unused*
 
NLS Config
ignoreCatalogAliasing
AbtNlsKernelApp
*same*
VAST 5.0 Compatibility
installationPath
AbtCommonProductInstallerApp
*same*
There are likely to be more changes in the future as additional setting entries in the INI file are moved from custom settings handler processing to Preference Settings Framework handler processing.
The separator between elements in an array of values is changed to be the (, - comma) character.
The following applications have been removed since they provided the (now-unused) preference setting support used before introduction of the new Preference Settings Framework:
AbtImageConfigurationApp
AbtEditImageConfigurationApp
Action required
If you maintain your own customized INI files, they should be updated as indicated above.
If you have applications that rely on the previous (undocumented) preference setting support in the 2 removed applications, you should convert your code to use the new Preference Settings Framework as described in the Smalltalk User Guide.
Last modified date: 07/24/2020