I mean the "rc" in those names stands for "run command". To me they are initialization scripts. Also, Bash is a scripting environment (sort of), and VimL is a

I mean the "rc" in those names stands for "run command". To me they are initialization scripts. Also, Bash is a scripting environment (sort of), and VimL is a solid part of vim. These are scenarios, where you don't add undue complexity or bugginess to the software. But personally, I wouldn't kid myself and pretend that I can write applications as solid as bash or vim. Makefiles are just bash scripts with dependency resolutions. So again, scripts and not configuration.