My real observation is that I see this as orthogonal to serialization and that it should remain that way. I don't seen any real overlap now except that there might be a couple of instances where either one might do. I think even these would be rare cases. I would resist any idea to intertwine these concepts.
I'm lost. What are "these concepts"? What I propose is that the "serialize" method be usable by the outfmt library to generate more usable output. No other link between the two libraries is suggested.
I assume you suggest something like: - if an object can be serialized, use that for output - if not, use default (operator<<) This seems ok to me. Reece? Best, John -- John Torjo -- john@torjo.com Contributing editor, C/C++ Users Journal -- "Win32 GUI Generics" -- generics & GUI do mix, after all -- http://www.torjo.com/win32gui/ -- v1.4.0 - save_dlg - true binding of your data to UI controls! + easily add validation rules (win32gui/examples/smart_dlg)