[boost] [serialization] portable_binary_archive

Subject: [boost] [serialization] portable_binary_archive
From: Hans Dembinski (hans.dembinski_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-01-25 12:38:56

Dear Robert,

I am interested in implementing a portable binary archive for boost.serialization and would like to discuss this with you. I have a personal interest in that for my histogram library, which would profit from a full implementation of portable_binary_archive that supports floating point numbers. I also know that the IceCube Neutrino Observatory would love to have a portable_binary_archive.

I had a look into the boost serialisation code, in particular, the incomplete portable_binary_archive in the examples directory and the external implementation of a portable binary archive, EOS. I also read the notes in the documentation of boost.serialization that you made about the incomplete implementation. It is understanding, that all it needs is a portable implementation of reading and writing floats and doubles. Is that correct?

I read that the author of EOS tried to submit to boost a while back. Apparently, this never happened. What was the issue?

I read up on floating point representation in binary, and I would approach the problem by implementing the IEEE754 standard in a portable way. Does that make sense?

Best regards,
Hans