Re: persistent object?

From:
Lew <noone@lewscanon.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:53:16 -0400
Message-ID:
<gt88dt$6s1$1@news.albasani.net>
Arne Vajh??j wrote:

Lew wrote:

Knute Johnson wrote:

Make them Serializable and write them to a file.


Be sure, if you follow this advice, that you take full responsibility
for the consequent contract. Implementing "Serializable" is a
commitment.


The requirement was to be able to persist an object.

That is a commitment.

There are really not that much extra commitment by implementing
the Serializable interface to achieve that goal.

It just makes the commitment more visible, which is a good thing.


Joshua Bloch disagrees with you, a little.

I agree with you, a lot. I wasn't claiming "extra" commitment, just the
commitment that serialization imposes. The problem is that many folks
implement 'Serializable' and think they're done and are not responsible for
the commitment that entails. Furthermore, 'Serializable' imposes some gotchas
that might not be obvious to some practitioners.

If it's not new news that you're taking on a lot of responsibility to use
'Serializable', so much the better. It is enough of a surprise to enough
people that it's worth mentioning. Joshua Bloch's major chapter on the
subject goes into the details. He also outlines many ways to lessen the burden.

--
Lew

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