Re: How to to convert object to XML string and back again
{ let us try to keep this focused on C++, please. thanks. -mod }
On 19 Dec, 20:10, Le Chaud Lapin <jaibudu...@gmail.com> wrote:
The program converts objects to XML strings and back again using the
reflection-based package XStream. I am wondering how one can do a
similar job in C++.
I use serialization. It works.
As far as serializing strings, that's possible: It is not
inconceivable to make a serialization framework where the target of
serialization converts types and values to a string encode of those
types and values [int:9107], storing them in an associative polyarchy
(my terminology) in XML like format, but not using XML, as XML is
grossly overrated.
XML is not my choice, especially when the data is to go over the wire,
as it is in this case. My preference is actually ASN.1 using BER but
not many people seem to have heard of it and there is not much tool
support.
[XML is one of those things that some engineers
find insanely appealing without really understanding what about it
exactly is so appealing, which leads to inflated expectations of what
it can do for them,
Most s/w engineers I have come across have XML in the right
perspective, but unfortunately mgmt do not and it is they that dictate
it be used for things it is not appropriate for.
which is most often much less than they think.]
In any case, Java programmers, and programmers in some other
"interpreted" languages, should know by now that it is farcical to
make comparisons between C++ and Java.
I think the comparison is inevitable, especially in the City (London)
where most of my work is. There java has largely replaced C++ which
suggests to me that C++ was being used when java can now be used
instead with no loss and several gains. The main gain is the skill is
cheaper. C++ is no longer taught. Java is.
C++ is a language whose target
code is interpreted by a CPU. Java is a language whose target code is
interpreted by target code that is interpreted by a CPU. The
intermediate layer, the JVM, or Java diaper as some of us like to call
it, creates an environment that would be strange to C++, but is a
necessity for Java, and this inseparability leads one to ask whether
Java is a language or a language+environment.
Java is a language+environment. People that move over to java just
have to accept this and they do, even though this can cause issues of
its own. I find that with the JVM in the game one has to be aware of
the time it takes for an app to start up (in C++ it is practically
instant) and from what I have seen one has to assume that more memory
will be consumed than the equivalent C++ program. It seems like
although the theory is memory will be collected via GC, in prcatise
one does not want GC to be invoked unless it is critical to be, since
GC occurs at non-deterministic points and is quite expensive.
On the matter of XML, I have been admonishing other engineers for
years that there will never be a system that magically converts from
XML to C++, or vice-versa, because the very proposition is senseless.
This seems like a very strong reaction to me. I know I would not have
picked XML but given that this is what is dictated, I have the need to
convert. I find that in java I can do this easily, in C++ it seems
very painful.
Most of them don't listen....
[snip]
I get asked about once every 3-4 months by a Java/C#/C++-Convert
programmer if I know of a good package to do XML to C++ conversion. I
respond by asking them an equally senseless, equally irritating
question.
I can only conclude that you must be in an environment where the
choices about which technological mixes are in use are made purely by
technical criterea. Lucky you. I don't think that's the case for most
of us.
-Le Chaud Lapin-
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