Re: [boost] [serialization] Argument (was: Regressions?)

From: Marcin Tustin (mt_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-07-01 10:25:52

        While the discussion continues regarding policy decisions in the
serialization library, I think I might contribute the following
observation, having only recently become a user of this library:

        The library has the feel of a library for building
serialisation, and serialisation-based libraries, rather than a
fully-featured library suitable for a programmer to pick up and start
throwing objects at. In this regard, the documentation might make
explicit the choices and policy decisions that users have to make, and
the limitations that obtain (for example, you can't just pick up a text
oarchive, and hook it to a text iarchive with connected streams have
things Just Work(TM), which is quite reasonable, but not totally
obvious) because of the way it has (largely necessarily) been
implemented.

        Please understand that I am not saying that the library cannot
simply be used for simple use-cases - quite the reverse, when you only
want to do simple things, then the library does just work out of the
box. However, things are rarely that simple for very long.

        It may help to think of the library this way.