[development] DEP - cascading variable system

[Chris Johnson]

Moshe Weitzman wrote:

> about #4. I'd like for user variables to be loaded into the $user object 
>  so that we don't go to the DB for them multiple times on a page view. 
> For example, lets say we invent a user pref called 'show signatures' and 
> I set that to FALSE because I am on a low bandwidth connection. I would 
> not want a variable_get('show signatures') to hit the DB every time we 
> show a node or comment. maybe a static cache would solve this.

Umm, doesn't variable_get() only hit the database the _first_ time the 
variable is requested on a page?  After that, it's in the global $conf, isn't it?

In general, I think it makes sense to keep user variables in user-related 
tables, *not* in the {variables} table.

..chrisxj