Hi Daniel,

Json based configuration files are the standard these days. Take for example Atom.io : it implements exactly what you want to achieve ( check https://atom.io/docs/api/v1.6.0/Config ) and VsCode does it by patching the base json config file with user json snippets ( https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings ) with user setiings to replace the default values - I forgot to mention PATCH( oDest, oSrc ) is the most important function nfTools will provide to achieve this kind of operations in VFP -

The same way we rely on table schemas, objects rely on xml schema or json schema to guarantee your object is compilant with the model. But, as you pointed out, that is somehow boring to write... and that's why I developed nSon and nSonXs. ( nFox scripting object notation & Schemas ) .. the same decision took by the Atom editor team ( not the above mentioned atom.io ) to use CNSON ( coffe script object notation ) https://flight-manual.atom.io/using-atom/sections/basic-customization/

I'll check and share a beta of nSonRead and nSonXs by the end of the day.

Marco