Can bincode be used to serialize and deserialize data which is meant to be sent and received using a socket?

[nbro]

I'm trying to send several types using sockets. So, to encode these several types, I am using bincode in conjunction with serde. I'm using rustc 1.30.1, bincode 1.0, serde_derive 1.0 and serde = 1.0.

The function I am using to send data using a socket can be found here. As you can see, I am actually trying to send a Msg<T>, where Msg is an enum, which contains a value that I want to send of type T. You can see the definition of the enum here.

The function I am using to receive data from the socket can be found here. As you can see, I am also trying to return a Msg<T> from this function.

Now, the problem is the following. If T is a f32, e.g. say 2.0, I am actually receiving 1073741824 inside the field of the enum value, in the receiving function. I have checked using the following code:

unsafe { std::mem::transmute::<u32, f32>(1073741824) }

And, apparently, 1073741824 is the unsigned representation of 2.0. If I do the same with a char, that is, if T is a char, e.g. 'a', I receive 97, which, again, after checking it with unsafe { std::mem::transmute::<u32, char>(97) }, is the unsigned representation of 'a'.

Btw, I have the following bounds on T, in the impl of the generic struct over T: T: Serialize + DeserializeOwned + Copy + Clone + Debug.

Questions

So, what's the problem with my code above? How can I receive a float and a char from a socket using bincode and serde?

Furthermore, if T is a tuple, say, (2, 1), I only receive the first element of the tuple, i.e. 2. So, what's going on here? How can I receive any type that has the bounds T: Serialize + DeserializeOwned + Copy + Clone + Debug?

Notes

Note: I am able to receive u32, i32 and usize values correctly.

Summary of the problems

• I cannot receive a f32 or f64 that is sent using a socket
• I cannot receive a tuple that is sent using a socket
• I probably cannot receive anything, that is sent using a socket, apart from integers

Comments

• This example works for me: https://github.com/TyOverby/bincode/blob/master/examples/basic.rs. Even if I add a tuple to the field Entity, it still works as expected. So, the problem may be related to the usage of sockets to send and receive data?

[nbro]

The issue is not in those functions that I shared above. I have several structs that depend on the same T. When creating an object of those structs, I had to explicitly state the concrete type, e.g. let mut proposer = Proposer::<u32>::new(...). However, I was forgetting to change u32 to e.g. f32. Thus, this problem is not related to serde, bincode or the sockets. It was just related to the fact that I am a newbie in Rust and I had forgotten this part of my code.