Jeff Garland writes:

Yes, for 'random access' archives (think relational database buffer here) it's possible the archive process will need additional meta-data not provided in the base library setup (think mapping of classes to tables and

attributes to columns). And yes, I've implemented this one before as well -- it's a very handy bit of infrastructure.

but in fact I believe given the current library it could now be done by writing and archive and perhaps some enhancements to the registration.

I faced the same problem with XML meta-data. I resolved with the NVP wrapper which kept XML out of the library core - really a big thing for me as I have had to continually refactor to keep things from growing totally out of control. I'm sure this idea of making a wrapper which includes meta-data along with the data itself is going to be useful in cases like this.

I think in the past Robert has considered this "out of scope",

Well, yes. I have fought a continuing battle to limit scope.

BTW, I think the references should include a reference to this paper which discusses many of these variations and design issues.

http://www.ubilab.org/publications/print_versions/pdf/plop-96-serializer.pdf I've seen this paper, and at this suggestion was made before. I think I included a reference to it but the link moved. There's another whole field to plow regarding web references as opposed to published ones. Robert Ramey