Re: [boost] [fileststem]1.32: with serilization: visibility of m_path

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-08 12:11:08

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 11:07:16 -0500, Beman Dawes wrote
> * Adding a dependency to the serialization library isn't a good idea 
> either. No matter how nice boost.serialization is, some 
> boost.filesystem users will not wish to use it, and will not want 
> the dependency.

Since the needed code for serialization is basically a template function the
dependency can be limited to those using serialization by having a new header
for serialization code.  So in date-time we have something like:

#include <boost/date_time/posix_time/time_serialize.hpp>

Filesystem could do something similar.
 
> Class path already has a member, path::string(), which in the 
> current implementation returns a reference to m_path, and in any 
> implementation must return the equivalent of a const reference to 
> m_path. Going the other way, the append function can be used to 
> import a serialized string. I'm not familiar with how 
> boost.serialization works, but wouldn't you be better off to use 
> those already public functions for serialization?
> 
> If not, I'm willing to make m_path protected, but would like to 
> explore other approaches to the serialization problem first.

I think you could easily write your serialization functions to just use the
string() interface.

Jeff