Re: [boost] Boost XDR library

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-12-14 12:22:01

Mattias Troyer wrote:

>On Dec 14, 2003, at 5:13 AM, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote:

>> I recall that the creation of an XDR archive class was considered 
>> during
>> the first review for Robert Ramey's serialization library.  AFAIK, an
>> XDR archive was never implemented because it was believed that there
>> were no existing suitably licensed XDR library, and no one wanted to
>> write one.
>
>> It appears, however, that the SunRPC XDR library is suitably licensed.
>> It is licensed as follows:

>> If it is decided that the SunRPC XDR library license is
>> boost-compatible, a boost XDR encoding/decoding library could be 
>> created
>> that uses it, from which an XDR serialization archive class could be
>> created.

>That looks like an excellent idea and I can work on it if there is 
>consensus that the license is fine, and once the next revision of the 
>serialization library comes out (which is supposed to have a few more 
>features that I need).

>Matthias

When investigating this before, I came upon the FreeBSD source
code implemenation of XDR.  AFAIK FreeBSD licensing is compatible
with boost as well.  I would guess either of these might serve
as the basis of an XDR archive.  Given this, I don't believe that an
XDR archive would be a large job for someone who needs it.

I'm currently closing in on draft # 14.  Aside from myriad small but
important corrections/enhancements, its main feature is a refactoring
of archive implementation to make it easier to create new archives
and inherit from existing ones - which is not possible with the current
archves implementation.

I'm also waiting for  the release of the next "official boost release"  (1.32?)
Currently I use the development tree but that is now quite divirgent
from the last official release.   uploadng draft 14 now would mean
that only those with development tree on thier machines could use it.

Robert Ramey