Re: Package for data serialization?

[Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>]

>>>>> "anon" == spamfilteraccount  <spamfilteraccount@gmail.com> writes:

  anon> Is there a package for de/serializing an arbitrary elisp data
  anon> structure, so that it can be read/written in binary format
  anon> from/to disk?

  anon> I know about prin1 and co., but they create a printed
  anon> representation and I want binary for speed and size.


As far as I know, this doesn't work in general. Not all lisp objects
have an output representation that can then by eval'd back in; the
most obvious one for me is the hash-table which is a pain. I can
understand why objects such as a frame or a window can't be
serialised, but not a hash. 

However, as far as I can tell Emacs does the have the ability to store
arbitrary elisp data items -- this is what `dump-emacs' does for
example. I wonder how hard it would be to extend this system so that
it could cope with arbitrary bits of the current state. It would be
quite useful. 

Incidentally, the printed representation is not bad. Emacs is pretty
quick at parsing lisp code, even large data structures, for purposes
of an eval.

Cheers

Phil