Serialize arrays and pointers #4824
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…eserialization of structs with array types and pointers Put logic in beginning of functions, not in struct unpacking Fix test
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Following pointers is not serialization. Look how cap'n'crunch (which uses structures with embedded relative pointers) does it. |
Yes following pointers can be dangerous so that could be an optional behaviour. The main goal though was the serialization of variable array types, which is the more common usage. They don't have the 'following pointer' issues. |
daurnimator
added
the
standard library
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Hi @marijnfs, thanks for the pull request, and apologies for taking so long to get to the review. I think, in this case, I'm going to ask you to maintain this in your own project or in a separate repository based on the fact that it is mostly copy-pasted code with some modifications. I don't think that the std lib at version 1.0 will have a serialization/deserialization API. We have a lot of extra APIs in the std lib right now that will likely be extracted into separately maintained packages, but they remain in std for now because they provide extra test coverage as the language evolves. But since this is mostly copy-pasted code with some modifications, it introduces a lot of maintenance cost, with little code coverage benefits. |
I needed to serializer structs with arrays like:
struct Message {
username: u8[:0],
message: u8[],
};
The current serializer doesn't allow for such 'pointer' types, probably since you would need an allocator during deserialization.
I added a serialization_allocate that implements the serialization in a way that allows for this.
The deserializer takes an allocator and allocates memory as needed.