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<@U41021CCB> by object serialization, I don’t mean a field-for-field copy like Java Serialization.  There can be some impedence, say you’re building your window shapes from an industry-standard format that deviates from your internal data structures.  In that case, the drawing of the UI and the positioning of elements — say the settings from the last session — need to be serialized, but don’t need the same type of treatment and exposure as a config file of URLs, servers, or datasources which are expected to change from deployment to deployment.

I think human-readable files are fine, especially since they can help with testing and support (send them over if there’s a problem).

It seems like this is a plain model to me. “config” to me means being able to get to the files in a known location, possibly overriding what’s there.  For example, pack a config file filled with defaults like “localhost” and allow the user to add a new config file on the command line with a -D or $HOME/.myapp/myconfig.