From: Kent Dahl <kentda@...>
Date: 2001-09-17T23:22:36+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21287] Re: Ruby objects <-> XML: anyone working on this?

Michael Neumann wrote:
> Try SOAP or XML-RPC for marshalling Ruby objects in a language-independent
> format (requires SOAP4R or xmlrpc4r to be installed):

I looked at these some months ago, but I had a new look now on SOAP.
(xmlrpc4r wouldn't install properly, I'll try again later.)

Nonetheless, it (SOAP) does not seem adequate for my needs:
 1) Language/implementation specific metadata in datafile (still lots of
type attribs)
 2) I can't seem to get referential integrity.
 3) The XML is less human-readable that I'd wish, mostly due to 1)

Seeing as point 2 is the show-stopper (for me), I'll elaborate.

<CODE>
dad = Person.new
son = Person.new
son.father = dad
people = [ dad, son ]
aString   = SOAP::Marshal.marshal( people )
xdad, xson = SOAP::Marshal.unmarshal( aString )
</CODE>

Then 
a) xdad.id != xson.father.id
b) xdad.type != dad.type

So then I wonder, does SOAP, XMLRPC, XMarshal or any other XML based
method of marshalling maintain referential integrity? (If that is the
right word for it)


-- 
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