Re: [boost] Serialization support, Was: [BoostCon07][testing] Session reminder.

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-05-05 06:16:16

Sohail Somani wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden]
>> [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Peter Dimov
>
>> If your serialization methods
>>
>> - allow creation of objects whose invariants do not hold, or
>> - expose implementation details in the external representation,
>
> What do you mean by the second line?

Consider for example a set<int>. The proper way to serialize it is as a 
sequence of values. This is what the user sees, and this external format is 
robust against changes in the implementation. If you serialize it as a tree 
of Node classes, this would make it quite hard to switch to a skip list 
representation later.