Session: Serialization

What is serialization?

It lets you take objects, put them on a disk, then later, perhaps on another computer, reverse the process: resurrect the original objects. The basic mechanisms are to flatten objects into a one-dimensional stream of bits, and to turn that stream of bits back into the original objects. (isocpp.org)

Criteria

• multiple output formats (binary, json or xml for debugging)
• portability (endianess)
• built-in serialization of STL types
• header-only
• compression of binary format
• versioning
• handling pointers
• easy to use

3 popular libraries:

• Protobuf
• Boost
• Cereal

Comparison:

	Protobuf	Boost	Cereal
License	3-clause BSD	Boost license	3-clause BSD
Header only	Yes	No	Yes
STL support	No	Yes	Almost
Portable Binary Format	Yes	Work in progress	Yes
Versioning	Yes	Yes	Yes
Formats	Binary	Binary, XML, Text	Binary, XML, JSON
Compression	No	Yes	No
Pointers	No*	Yes	Smart, shared, unique and weak pointers

Benchmarking suite:

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