I prefer Rake to NAnt (#4)

I prefer Yaml for Ruby to the Configuration classes in the .net framework.
Configuration information is often stored in a text file. When using Rake the information can be put into a yaml file that is highly readable and maintainable without all the unnecessary noise.

--- !ruby/object:Configuration 
catalog: cat
data_source: source
password: password
user: jay

Next, you will need to create a Configuration class. Yaml.rb::load will automatically load your configuration information into an instance of the Configuration class.

class Configuration
  attr_accessor :user, :password, :data_source, :catalog
end

At this point you are ready to access your configuration information via methods of the object. The following test verifies the expected behavior.

require 'yaml'
require 'test/unit'

class TestConfiguration < Test::Unit::TestCase
  def testYmlLoaded
    config = YAML::load(File.open('config.yaml'))
    assert_equal("jay",config.user)
    assert_equal("password",config.password)
    assert_equal("source",config.data_source)
    assert_equal("cat",config.catalog)
  end
end

*SciTE formatting