RE: persistent lisp objects

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> We can actually save any lisp object in a compiled file:
> 
> This is a feature of `eval-when-compile' that is not documented.
> It can be interesting as AFAIK there is no way to save object.

Now that the detour about licensing has died down, perhaps we can return to
this? ;-)

From what I understand, Thierry says that Emacs now has a general
serialization/deserialization feature, in the form of byte-compiling to a file
and then reading that file. I haven't tested it, but if true, this is great
news, and I'm surprised it isn't mentioned as such (that I can tell) in NEWS.

How about adding explicit Lisp functions that capture this feature, as such?
IOW, instead of a few people knowing about this as a nice hack that happens to
work with the (recent) byte-compiler, how about defining `(de)serialize'
functions that make use of this feature, and advertize those functions?

If the functions were standalone (even if they borrowed some of the
byte-compiler code), then they could perhaps even be used in older Emacs
versions.

IOW, how about breaking this part of the byte-compiler code out, as separate
functions (which would also be used by the byte-compiler, of course). (Dunno if
this last part makes sense - maybe it's the whole byte-compiler that would be
needed.)

Anyway, it sounds to me like Thierry's discovery, if general, could be exploited
and made more directly noticeable/usable by users.

And at the very least, how about documenting this existing feature, as Thierry
requested?