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I am working with a MFC application for the first time and I have lots of doubts the biggest at the moment is What is .ini file and why is it there? What exactly is the role it plays? Can some tell me the required?

Edit : What if I make an application and do not have .ini file, what do I loose on?

vin
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INI files are an old way of storing application configuration, particularly in Windows 3.x, such as WIN.INI, and Windows 9x, and SYSTEM.INI. Windows NT used BOOT.INI as part of its boot process. Later applications used registry keys and more recent .Net applications store settings in app.config XML files.

Community
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akton
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Old and recent softwares use INI files, like OpenOffice.org and Mercurial. The problem of the INI format is simple : there is no standard. Some implementations allow advanced features (key references, Unicode support, etc), others not.

If you want a Properties file with "sections" (like "[foo]"), INI is a good choice. It has the same role as Properties, CFG, CONFIG, XML, PO, etc.

Jonathan Lermitage
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