On Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 10:55:01 (+0200) Vidal Roca writes:
Sorry for the unclear question. As Bill Lear clarified, I mean the following (not archive formats):
class Foo { template<class Archive> void serialize(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version);
template<class Archive> void serialize_II(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version); };
where serialize_II reads and writes the data structure in a different manner than serialize.
It could be possible using versioning; but is there any other possibility?
Well, what you really want is runtime dispatch, then. Sounds like you need a flag of some sort in your class, and then maybe if you want to go overboard, a factory method, a set of derived classes, etc. But, basically, using a simple flag: class Foo { enum { Format1, Format2, Format3, ...}; int format; // ... template <class Archive> void serialize1(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version) { // ... } template <class Archive> void serialize(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version) { switch (format) { case Format1: serialize1(ar, version); break; case Format2: serialize2(ar, version); break; case Format3: serialize3(ar, version); break; default: // ... barf } } }; Build your runtime dispatch however you like. Here it's a class variable, but could be a global variable, method, etc. Not sure this is what you want. Bill