[Boost-users] using the serialization library with a std::map of Blitz++ arrays

From: Ivan Gonzalez (iglpdc_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-05-13 10:25:21

Dear all,

I have a code that uses a class which is basically a std::map of int and Blitz++
arrays. (I think that for this matter the Blitz++ array can be consider a plain
array.) I need to save a bunch of these objects into a file and read them later
during the same run. A typical run will produce a few thousands of these maps,
each of them having a size of the order of 50, and each of these ~50 Blitz++
arrays holding a few thousands of doubles. Right now I'm just using the Blitz++
overloaded operator<<(>>) for the output (input), which pretty much runs over
the Blitz++ array using the operator<<(>>) for doubles. I guess the
serialization library with a binary archive would make a difference in the
performance of my code. I've understood from the documentation that the
serialization of STL container can be done just by including the proper header,
but I must serialize the Blitz++ array by myself. Then I could use whichever
Archive (binary in my case) I want to.

My question is: is that the only thing I have to do to or I got it wrong? I've
also seen an old thread in the mailing lists where it seemed that some people
were pushing to include support for Blitz++ (and some other numerical stuff)
built-in in the serialization library, has this ever been done ?

More generally, would this be the best strategy to get a fast input/output for
large numerical arrays or there is something else within Boost I could use ?

Best,

Ivan

PS: I noticed that there was a tutorial on BoostCon08 on the serialization
library.  Is it possible to get the slides/notes?