[Discussion] Ideas for better model config management

(I keep it in the issues to refer back to the initial discussion)

Hi All!!

I guess one of the biggest issues in TTS is the way we handle the configs for models and training. Putting example config files under the config folder is hard to maintain and looks complicated for people to start using TTS.

So I want to discuss here some better alternatives and ask for the wisdom of the crowd 🧑‍🤝‍🧑.

Couple of constraints we need to consider from the top of my head.

• configs should not be python specific, and they should be in a generic form to be serialized and loaded by other systems and programming languages. So if someone likes to export the model and use it in an embedded system config file should not be a problem.
• configs should allow easy experimentation, collaboration, and reproduction.
• Each model should explain its config fields. Right now I do this in config.json by violating the JSON format with comments. It is not optimal ☹️.

If you have an idea please share it below and let’s discuss it.

Edit:

I should also add one more constraint.

• We should solve this with no dependencies if possible.

NOTE: This is a continuation of previously started conversion https://github.com/mozilla/TTS/issues/660

_Originally posted by @erogol in https://github.com/coqui-ai/TTS/discussions/20_

[erogol]

do you know what are good formats with multiple platform support?

I guess json is one and that was the reason I choose it initially.

Btw one good option could be using just Python classes as config files and export them to generic formats when necessary.

[erogol]

I created this to use an in house solution https://github.com/erogol/coqpit