Re: [boost] Serialization Formal Review #2

From: Matthias Troyer (troyer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-04-16 16:32:33

On Apr 13, 2004, at 9:42 PM, Robert Ramey wrote:
> Making a new archive class is described in the section "New Archives -
> Implementation".  The model for an archive class is:
>
> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
> ///
> // class trivial_iarchive - read serialized objects from a input text  
> stream
> class trivial_iarchive
>
> : public boost::archive::common_iarchive<trivial_iarchive>
> {
>     // permit serialization system priledged access to permit
>     // implementation of inline templates for maximum speed.
>     friend class boost::serialization::load_access;
>
>     // member template for loading primitive types.
>     // Override for any types/templates that special treatment
>     template<class T>
>     void load(T & t);
>
> public:
>     //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>     // public interface used by programs that use the
>     // serialization library
>
>     // the >> operator
>     template<class T>
>     trivial_iarchive & operator>>(T & t){
>         boost::serialization::load(* This(), t);
>         return * This();
>     }
>
>     // archives are expected to support this function
>     void load_binary(void *address, size_t count);
>
> };
>
> So in theory one has to implement the two undefined functions.
>
> For each primitive data type, int, float, etc. or any type designated  
> as
> primitive define a "load" template for function to read them from the  
> file.
>
> For each data type that you want to treat specially - rather than  
> allowing
> the serialization library to do the job - define an overload for the >>
> operator.

Just a quick question: what should the default  load  (I mean   
template<class T> void load(T & t);) function do? Do I guess correctly  
that it should never be called and is thus undefined to cause link-time  
errors?

Looking through the documentation I find references to virtual  
functions:

> class trivial_iarchive
>
> // all input archives must be derived from this base class.  This base
> // class defines the virtual functions necessary for the serialization
> // library to handle special types for the serialization system.

I guess that these are incorrect comments left over from an old version?

Matthias