Configuration as Flat File vs. Registry

[Edward Foley]

Greetings all. I have been reading some of the postings and the wiki 
concerning the configuration (registry vs. flat file). In a production 
situation where there are multiple instances of a container running at 
one time I find it much easier to have a flat (XML) file to hold the 
configuration. I can edit the file in my favorite text editor, XML 
editor or IDE and deploy it through the build process for the 
application. Having to go through a GUI to edit the registry for each 
instance would be a significant pain. Even if you could, theoretically, 
point all instances to the same registry I may not have access to a 
configuration GUI from the console I am working at. I am also not 
convinced that the common registry will not become a major problem when 
you have a failure of the container housing the registry.