@staticmethod
def _item_to_section_key(item):
    """Converts an item description to a section-key pair.

        @param item: the item to be converted
        @return: if C{item} contains a period (C{.}), it is splitted into two parts
          at the first period, then the two parts are returned, so the part before
          the period is the section. If C{item} does not contain a period, the
          section is assumed to be C{general}, and the second part of the returned
          pair contains C{item} unchanged"""
    if '.' in item:
        section, key = item.split('.', 1)
    else:
        section, key = 'general', item
    return section, key
