John Torjo wrote:

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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

Is there a way to test if a class can be serialized. If that is the case, maybe it would be beneficial to add it into fmt::basic using MPL wizardry. I.e. can you do: mpl::if_< is_serializable< T >, ..., ... > ?

- if not, use default (operator<<)

This seems ok to me. Reece?

I was thinking of having a separate format object (fmt::serialize?) instead of complicating fmt::basic. You can then do: BOOST_IO_CLASSIFY( SerializableType, boost::io::serializable_type ) to add it into the type deduction mechanism, unless there is an is_serializable< T > trait. Alternatively, you would be able to explicitly designate to use 'serialize': io::object( people, fmt::container( fmt::serialize())); Regards, Reece _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with absent friends - get MSN Messenger http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger