config structure

[barneydobson]

Since have nested and rather complex config structure, this approach is not suitable. You should have a custom class for this using dataclass for example, since working with nested dict objects is difficult and not maintainable. I know you're in a time crunch and want to produce results as soon as possible. But I highly recommend refactoring this part. So, for example, instead of having config['real']['results'], you can have something like this:

@dataclass
class RealModel:
    inp: Path
    graph: Path
    subcatchments: Path
    results: Path

    def __post_init__(self)->None:
        self.inp = Path(self.inp)
        self.graph = Path(self.inp)
        self.subcatchments = Path(self.inp)
        self.results = Path(self.inp)
        for f in (self.inp, self.graph, self.subcatchments, self.results):
            if not f.exists():
                 raise FileNotFoundError(f)
@dataclass
class ModelConfig:
    real: RealModel

So, whenever you want to use it in the code, you can use config.real.results. You can have validations and conversions, if necessary, in __post_init__. Having a structure for config even makes development and maintenance easier, since most IDEs now use them for autocomplete suggestions and static type checkers will be able to catch errors.

As I said, if you don't have time to refactor this now, it's ok, it's not a blocker for me.

Originally posted by @cheginit in #83 (comment)