I actually preferred the XML config, and I hate XML. Why? It was all in one spot, not spread out among the source files. It could be "deployed" alongside the code and not have to recompile/build. This was a bigger deal back then when "config" was often outside the official "installation" procedures that required 5 layers of OK's to put a new "compiled version" of an application in a production system. Not saying that was the right way to do it, but it existed.