Re: Reminder: Describe needs a review manager

From: pdimov_at_[hidden]
Date: 2021-02-25 03:16:13

Robert Ramey wrote:
> On 2/24/21 8:10 AM, Richard Hodges via Boost wrote:
> >
> > I can identify a number of cases where this library would be useful for me.
> >
> > The easy implementation of serialisation being a major one.
> 
> I understand the appeal of this idea.  But, save trivial cases, I'm doubtful that
> reflection will make serialization easier than it already is.

It will in some cases and won't in others.

There are scenarios where f.ex. your applications need to talk to each other over the wire, but the actual format is transient and doesn't really matter, because you're deploying both endpoints (in sync.) In this case, you don't need to care about versioning. You may still need to override the default de/serializer by hand for some types, but every one of them for which you don't is still a win.

There's also a scenario where the format is predetermined, and you create your C++ structs to conform to it, rather than vice versa. (This of course assumes that you have an archive supporting the format.)