If it is a text file you manually edit, then those changes are going to be inherently filtered through whatever policy decisions the tool that reads that file m

If it is a text file you manually edit, then those changes are going to be inherently filtered through whatever policy decisions the tool that reads that file makes. I am having a hard time truly understanding the difference (not that we use VS stuff for deployment anyways, but that is for other reasons). A developer could add custom deployment info to the manual file and accidentally commit it just as easily. You just do not like GUIs (which is a perfectly acceptable stance) but it has nothing to do with some fundamental difference.