[boost] Re: Using Serialization for binary marshalling

From: Matthew Vogt (mvogt_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-21 22:29:47

Jeff Garland <jeff <at> crystalclearsoftware.com> writes:

> > Is anyone else interested in using Robert Ramey's serialization 
> > library for the purpose of marshalling data into pre-determined 
> > binary formats?
> 
> Yes.  In particular, I believe a CDR (Common Data Representation), which is
> CORBA's binary format would be highly useful for network apps.
> 

Yes, it's interesting.  Looks simple enough from the basic descriptions I've
found - is there an authoritative specification freely available? Or do you
have sufficient access to the spec to answer my questions?

> > This is not related to serialization in a general sense, but 
> > employing the syntax and underlying fundamentals of the library, to 
> > a somewhat related purpose.
> 
> Well, I believe that one of the design changes that was requested in the 
> first review.  That is, to make the archive seperate from serialization -- 
> and hence in the current version the Robert has created the boost/archive
> directory.

Yes, this is certainly the case - it's very little effort to change the
behaviour.

> > This is a test program demonstrating what I'm doing - I'm interested 
> > to know if anyone else is doing anything similar...
> >... code snipped ...
> 
> I'm not building such a thing, but if you do I'm sure I'll use it.  And your
> experiences in extending the library would be interesting for the upcoming
> re-review of serialization 
> 

Good, thanks for your interest.  I hope to whip up enough support to convince 
Robert that this is generally useful - if I can get accepted, I'll never need
to recreate this code *again*!

Matt