Hi Daniel, You may have already considered this option, but what if you were to require a template argument for which the user could pass a serialization behavior class ... much like an allocator for STL containers. I.E. YOUR CODE: template <typename T, typename serialize_T> struct container { void serialize(unsigned version) {serialize_T::do(data, version);} virtual ~container() = default; T data; }; USER'S CODE: struct my_serialize { static void do(SOME_TYPE data, unsigned version) {<user does what's needed here>} }; typedef container<SOME_TYPE, my_serialize> my_container; Maybe of some help to you? -- Matt ________________________________ This e-mail contains privileged and confidential information intended for the use of the addressees named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that you must not disseminate, copy or take any action in respect of any information contained in it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and immediately destroy this e-mail and its attachments.