Re: checking in links to source control

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Friday, September 14, 2001 at 22:26:36 (GMT), Kaz Kylheku wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: checking in links to source control
>
> ``Serialization'' in this context means the same thing as
> ``marshalling''. It's not restricted to the object oriented paradigm.
> 
> It just means taking some internal representation of data and
> producting some external representation, for transmission or
> persistent storage. ``Flattening'' is another word for this.

I wish people in the computer industry would quit making up new names
for things that have already been named.  That's one of the reasons why
I reach for a real dictionary first -- many computer and communications
glossaries are full of nonsense.

What you're describing is the creation of a canonical representation of
an object or attribute -- a representation suitable for storing on
secondary storage or transmitting to another system.  In data
communications it's also informally called a wire-format.  Perhaps some
people have made the mistaken leap into associating this with serial
communications.....

While ``marshaling'' (there's only one 'l' the way most people spell it,
including most American publishers) is a suitable description of what
might be done with a set of objects (it's the act of assembling or
organizing and making ready for use or action); its hardly a suitable
way of describing what might be done with a single object or attribute.

-- 
                                                        Greg A. Woods

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