Two serialization library tests: test_demo_portable_archive[_dll] fail to compile on many platforms with invalid type conversion error. I did not check all the platforms, but I'd expect it to fail on any big endian platform. The patch below fixes the problem, verified on HP-UX with both aC++ and gcc. Ok to commit? Index: example/portable_binary_oarchive.hpp =================================================================== --- example/portable_binary_oarchive.hpp (revision 40687) +++ example/portable_binary_oarchive.hpp (working copy) @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ // we choose to use litle endian #ifdef BOOST_BIG_ENDIAN - char * first = static_cast<char *>(static_cast<void *>(& l)); + char * first = reinterpret_cast<char *>(const_cast<long *>(& l)); char * last = first + sizeof(l) - 1; for(;first < last;++first, --last){ char x = *last; Thanks, Boris