Storing the configuration in property files

The property files are often used with Java programs. There's no reason we can't use them with Python. They're relatively easy to parse and allow us to encode the configuration parameters in a handy, easy-to-use format. For more information on the format, see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.properties. Here's what a properties file might look like:

# Example Simulation Setup

player.betting: Flat
player.play: SomeStrategy
player.rounds: 100
player.stake: 50

table.dealer: Hit17
table.decks: 6
table.limit: 50
table.payout: (3,2)
table.split: NoResplitAces

simulator.outputfile = p2_c13_simulation8.dat
simulator.samples = 100

This has some advantages in terms of simplicity. The section.property qualified names are commonly used. These can become long in a very complex configuration file.

Parsing a properties file

There's no built-in properties parser in the Python Standard Library. We can download a property file parser from the Python Package Index...