The task is to read a configuration file in standard configuration file format,
and set variables accordingly.

For this task, we have a configuration file as follows:

# This is a configuration file in standard configuration file format
#
# Lines beginning with a hash or a semicolon are ignored by the application
# program. Blank lines are also ignored by the application program.

# This is the fullname parameter
FULLNAME Foo Barber

# This is a favourite fruit
FAVOURITEFRUIT banana

# This is a boolean that should be set
NEEDSPEELING

# This boolean is commented out
; SEEDSREMOVED

# Configuration option names are not case sensitive, but configuration parameter
# data is case sensitive and may be preserved by the application program.

# An optional equals sign can be used to separate configuration parameter data
# from the option name. This is dropped by the parser. 

# A configuration option may take multiple parameters separated by commas.
# Leading and trailing whitespace around parameter names and parameter data fields
# are ignored by the application program.

OTHERFAMILY Rhu Barber, Harry Barber



For the task we need to set four variables according to the configuration entries as follows:

fullname = Foo Barber
favouritefruit = banana
needspeeling = true
seedsremoved = false


We also have an option that contains multiple parameters. These may be stored in an array.

 otherfamily(1) = Rhu Barber
 otherfamily(2) = Harry Barber


Related tasks
 Update a configuration file


fcn readConfigFile(config){  //--> read only dictionary
   conf:=Dictionary();
   foreach line in (config){
      line=line.strip();
      if (not line or "#"==line[0] or ";"==line[0]) continue;
      line=line.replace("\t"," ");
      n:=line.find(" ");
      if (Void==n) conf[line.toLower()]=True;  // eg NEEDSPEELING
      else{
	 key:=line[0,n].toLower(); line=line[n,*];
	 n=line.find(",");
	 if (Void!=n) conf[key]=line.split(",").apply("strip").filter();
	 else conf[key]=line;
      }
   }
   conf.makeReadOnly();
}
 
conf:=readConfigFile(File("foo.conf"));