Re: [boost] [boost::endian] Request for comments/interest

Subject: Re: [boost] [boost::endian] Request for comments/interest
From: Stewart, Robert (Robert.Stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-06-01 08:44:04

Cliff Green wrote:
>
> And (as I just wrote in a different e-mail), you do know the
> brittleness and maintenance burden of "casting structs" and
> sending them over the network (or writing to file)? I've
> seen developers waste days trying to figure out subtle
> problems of alignment and mismatched message sizes.

One can easily specify a field with the endian type or with the right endianness, so using the endian types doesn't preclude mistakes.  However, I concede that writing procedural code to swap each field, including newly added fields, is more brittle.

Presuming that the function approach is more efficient, I can imagine writing code with the endian types and, when performance becomes an issue, switching to normal types plus swapping function calls.

Having the choice is valuable.

_____
Rob Stewart                           robert.stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer, Core Software      using std::disclaimer;
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  http://www.sig.com

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