This looks pretty cool Alan. We could also do this in INI by introducing a meta concept:
[main] ... myFilter = com.foobar.whatever[scope=prototype] where 'scope=singleton' would be the default to retain current behavior. This would turn 'myFilter' (and any of its property settings) into a 'definition' object and not the object itself. Then each time it is instantiated (per filter chain perhaps), the definition is translated into an instance at that time. Just thinking out loud... Les
