Re: [boost] [serialization] use of unsigned int instead of size_type

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-13 04:34:45

Kim Barrett wrote:

> 1. std::size_t
>
> This causes major problems for portable binary archives. I'm aware
> that portable binary archives are tricky (and perhaps not truly
> possible in the most general sense of "portable"). In particular,
> they require that users of such archives be very careful about the
> types that they include in such archives, avoiding all explicit use
> of primitive types with implementation-defined representations in
> favor of types with a fixed representation. So no int's or long's,
> only int32_t and the like. Floating point types add their own
> complexity.

I don't understand where all this talk of portable binary archives being 
tricky is coming from. I have such an archive, and it works. int32_t's of 
course don't work for the same reason that size_t doesn't work, they are 
typedefs that may map to different types on different platforms. Floating 
point formats _are_ tricky, though. There are ways to convert FP to portable 
external representation but I haven't used them; the hack of assuming IEEE 
and same endianness as an int32/int64 works for me so far.