Hi, I'm starting to get the hang of this as I slog through, but it's still a bit rough! I'm able to derive a new archive from binary_oarchive_impl, but for some reason, I can't do the same with text_oarchive_impl. Specifically, I get the following error (from MS Visual C++ 8.0, using Boost 1.33.1): 1>..\rsg_text_oarchive.hpp(24) : error C2649: 'basic_text_oprimitive<class std::basic_ostream<char,struct std::char_traits<char> > >' : is not a 'class' 1> ..\rsg_text_oarchive.hpp(40) : see reference to class template instantiation 'rsg_text_oarchive_impl<Archive>' being compiled The similar line in the binary archive works fine. Attached are the two derived archives in question. All I'm trying to do (at this point) is add a short header in the constructor; next, I'll want to add a footer in the destructor. Thanks! -Bob