Re: Should the format used by NSArchiver be changed to XML?

[Willem Rein Oudshoorn]

Gregory Casamento <greg_casamento@yahoo.com> writes:

> All,
> 
> As usual I have a bundle of thoughts flying around in my brain, so...
> 
> Currently NSArchiver stores objects in a binary format.   It wouldn't be hard
> to change NSArchiver to store purely in XML.

No it would not.  
 
> This change would have the following effects:
> 
> Advantages:
> 1) It would allow better portability of archived objects across platforms
> between different version of GNUstep.

Why?  I think the NSArchiver format is already cross hardware-platform
(I mean GNUstep on other computers) and I do not think there are
problems with different versions of GNUstep.

> 2) It would be possible to write a framework on MOSX to allow compatibility
> between programs written in GNUstep and MOSX.

Yes, but just letting NSArchiver output XML does not work.  Because it will
output GNUstep base/gui classes and the format is tied to the GNUstep 
internals.  So if you want cross platform you have to map GNUstep
classes to some platform neutral representation.  

> Disadvantages:
> 1) Archives would occupy more space as some of the binary content would need 
> to
> be encoded (probably using base64).

2) Will be slower.
 
> Please let me know if anyone has any thoughts on this.

I think the cross platform, like sharing archives between MacOSX and
GNUstep, is a good idea.  But in my opinion it is better to write a
small framework/subproject that will do this for you and leave
the current behaviour alone.


Wim Oudshoorn.