Re: [boost] [serialization] fast array serialization (10x speedup)

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-22 11:33:17

"Robert Ramey" <ramey_at_[hidden]> writes:

> I have one question about this.
>
> What is the ultimate purpose.  That is it just to optimize
> serialization of certains types of collections of bit streamable
> objects? or does have some more ambitious goal.

I thought I highlighted the ultimate purpose quite clearly already:

  ,----
  | For many archive formats and common datatypes there exist APIs
  | that can quickly read or write contiguous sequences of those types
  | all at once (**).  Reading or writing such a sequence by
  | separately reading or writing each element (as the serialization
  | library currently does) can be an order of magnitude more
  | expensive.
  `----

  We want to be able to capitalize on the existence of those APIs, and
  to do that we need a "hook" that will be used whenever a contiguous
  sequence is going to be (de)serialized.  No such hook exists in
  Boost.Serialization.

  (**) Note that this capability is not necessarily tied to bitwise
       serialization or the use of a binary representation.

In particular, I took special pains to clarify above (**) that this is
*not* merely about "serialization of certains types of collections of
bit streamable objects." 

If that's unclear, maybe you could ask some specific questions so that
I know what needs to be clarified.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com