Re: Serialization library, request for feedback

From	Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Serialization library, request for feedback
Date	2012-12-15 12:25 +1300
Message-ID	<aj1qqfFjn61U2@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	(5 earlier) <kafcvn$oda$2@dont-email.me> <0.a84c2981ffc12d1b27e7.20121214152201GMT.878v90fyli.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <aj1g5kFjn61U1@mid.individual.net> <50CB8C8B.8080608@verizon.net> <kag5nv$5fo$1@news.albasani.net>

Show all headers | View raw

BGB wrote:
> On 12/14/2012 2:31 PM, James Kuyper wrote:
>> On 12/14/2012 03:23 PM, Ian Collins wrote:
>>> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>>> Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't think JSON is a good fit for the OP's task.  There are lots of C
>>>>>> data structures that have no obvious JSON representation at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> What data structures do you have in mind?
>>>>
>>>> My ring_buffer example is one.  In fact, any structure where pointers are
>>>> "shared" would seem to be a bad fit with JSON.
>>>
>>> How often would you want to serialise a structure that contains
>>> pointers?  Pointer values are only useful within the current executing
>>> program, so you have to use some form of conversion.
>>
>> Yes, and ideally the serialization system should handle that conversion
>> for you, if you give it enough information to do so. I don't claim to
>> know of any serialization system that meets that ideal.
>
> if I understand what is meant here, this case would likely a *very* hard
> problem for a general-purpose serialization API...

Don't loose sight of the difference between the serialisation technique 
and the representation of the serialised data.  The same problems (such 
as what to do with pointers) exist with any general purpose 
serialisation technique or sufficiently expressive data representation.

How the data types are described is another, independent, problem.  Even 
in C code, a structure object requires meta-data (the struct 
declaration) to describe its type.

In my experience serialising data containing pointers is a very unusual 
occurrence.  The only time I have done this is where a set of 
cooperating processes are using data in shared memory.  In this case, 
pointers can either be serialised as an offset from the segment base or 
as plain integer values if all processes use the same base address for 
the segment.

-- 
Ian Collins

Thread

Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-13 13:46 -0800
  Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-12-13 13:57 -0800
    Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-13 14:30 -0800
      Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 19:38 +1300
        Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 03:47 -0600
          Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 23:23 +1300
            Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 11:29 -0600
          Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 03:51 -0800
            Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 12:02 -0600
        Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-12-14 12:18 +0000
          Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 14:27 +0000
            Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-12-14 15:22 +0000
              Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 13:00 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Greg Martin <greg@softsprocket.com> - 2012-12-14 11:58 -0800
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 15:08 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2012-12-14 20:07 -0800
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-16 03:49 -0800
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-16 13:17 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Greg Martin <greg@softsprocket.com> - 2012-12-17 09:07 -0800
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-17 13:25 -0600
              Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 09:23 +1300
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-12-14 15:31 -0500
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 15:26 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 12:25 +1300
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 18:41 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 14:56 +1300
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 23:36 -0600
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 20:13 +1300
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 21:42 -0500
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 23:47 -0600
              Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 21:12 +0000
                Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Johann Klammer <klammerj@NOSPAM.a1.net> - 2012-12-15 05:06 +0100
    Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Willem <willem@turtle.stack.nl> - 2012-12-14 22:20 +0000
  Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-12-13 23:11 +0000
    Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-13 15:57 -0800
      Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-12-14 02:53 +0000
        Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 04:25 -0800
      Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Bart van Ingen Schenau <bart@ingen.ddns.info.invalid> - 2012-12-14 08:04 +0000
  Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 14:25 +0000
    Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 13:58 -0600
      Re: Serialization library, request for feedback "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-14 20:44 +0000
        Re: Serialization library, request for feedback BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-14 16:58 -0600
        Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Ulf Åström <ulf.astrom@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 17:39 -0800
    Re: Serialization library, request for feedback Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2012-12-14 14:19 -0800

csiph-web