Re: [Boost-users] Re: Is there a binary serialization class ?

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-08-31 06:27:02

Carlo Wood wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 12:42:17AM +0000, Raj wrote:
>>> what would a binary serialization class do?
>>
>> To archive the class object data to be used at a later time in a
>> file, and to not let the users simply read the contents.
>
> A general "binary serialization class" would never know
> where builtin-variables begin and end (or what type they
> are) and therefore cannot swap bytes on Big-Endian machines.

You may be right, depending on the meaning of "general", but useful binary 
serializers do exist. You just need to decide how to represent the built-in 
types. For example, I've chosen that the external representation of a char 
is 8 bits, a short 16, int and long 32. This is perfectly portable, as long 
as the values of my variables do not exceed these limits.