docs: def configure(self, conf={}):
          """
          Allows updating of the configuration via a dictionary of
          configuration terms or a configuration object. Generally speaking,
          this method is utilized to configure the object from a JSON or
          YAML parsing.
          """
          if not conf: return
          if isinstance(conf, Configuration):
              conf = dict(conf.options())
          for key, value in conf.items():
              opt = self.get(key, None)
              if isinstance(opt, Configuration):
                  opt.configure(value)
              else:
                  setattr(self, key, value)