XML for Java serialization

[Tyler Baker]

Paul Prescod wrote:

> Tyler Baker wrote:
> >
> > With respect to using XML as an alternative serialization format for Java, the big
> > limitation here is that things really break down whenever you try and externalize Java
> > objects that are not structured in tree form.  Solving this problem is not impossible,
> > but it certainly is difficult.
>
> I don't think that this problem is particularly hard. Java has references,
> XML has ID references. You can easily model one with the other.
>
> The only probably is that Java objects serialized as documents are going
> to be <VERY> <VERBOSE>.

Well it is pretty simple to say IDs are the answer.  They are indeed a possibility.  Try
coming up with an implementation which resolves circular references and can be rebuilt back
into its original in-memory data structure.  Implementation is not as simple as it sounds...

Tyler


xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa at ic.ac.uk)