For the option to save the configuration in the same directory it would be useful if all systems use the same configuration file. Currently there is WBPREFS.TXT on Windows and Whiteboard Prefs on Mac OS X etc. The idea is to use the same configuration file and file format for all platforms.
Of course this will not some changes for some options. E.g. speakVoiceUs and prefs_tileTheme. The first probably can be fixed by adding either 2 config lines for this or a list for this option (e.g. speakVoiceUsWin, speakVoiceUsMac etc or speakVoiceUs: MacSetting WinSetting). The latter can be solved in the same way with one difference: there should be a way for people to use the same theme on all platforms.
I propose something like this:
prefs_tileTheme: clam aqua winxpblue <--different settings for the different platforms
prefs_tileTheme: black - - <--use the black theme on all platforms
prefs_tileTheme: black - winxpblue <--Use the black theme (default) on all platforms but Windows
By default, this will be a list of 3 values and Coccinella always will change on list item if the theme is changed on one platform. However, if the user manually edits the file and removes all items but one, Coccinella will not add more values again; it will only change this value. This behaviour can be reset using the Factory Defaults option or by manually adding more entries to the config file.
This would be really useful for a portable Coccinella on an USB Stick B-)
The prefs files now have consistent names. Old one renamed before reading.
Speech voices are stored in a platform dependent way.
Your proposition for the tile themes is too complicated and I don't think it is needed. If you store a theme that exists x-platform that will be used. If you store, say aqua and then start from Windows, I think it automatically has a fallback to a platform standard theme like xpnative on XP. In any case I'd like to see a simpler scheme for this.