Re: [boost] JSON Archives for Boost.serialization

From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard (jbms_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-03-23 02:45:24

Jeff Garland <jeff_at_[hidden]> writes:

> Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote:
>> "Kasun Indrasiri" <kasun147_at_[hidden]> writes: >

>> Thus, it is not clear what advantage a JSON-format archive would offer.
>> The most obvious use for JSON is for communicating with a program
>> written in JavaScript, but then it would be necessary to follow a
>> particular format so that the JavaScript program could do something
>> useful with the data, and therefore Boost Serialization is not the right
>> tool for the job.
>> 

> Programs written in C++ often need to inter communicate with programs written 
> in other languages.  Or they need to store data structures in a form that can 
> be processed by programs written in another language. JSON is now a common 
> format for doing this and has parsers any many languages.  Last but not least, 
> even if the program is all C++ some folks would prefer a recognizable and 
> widely used format -- the serialization 'proprietary formats' don't qualify on 
> that score.

There are already is the XML archive support, but that is still a
"Boost serialization proprietary format".  Likewise, using JSON syntax
in place of XML would still result in a "Boost serialization proprietary
format".

I'd certainly agree that JSON I/O facilities in C++ are useful, but I
don't think that then sticking Boost Serialization on top of those
facilities would be very useful.

-- 
Jeremy Maitin-Shepard