From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2003-03-18T01:00:55+09:00
Subject: Re: ANN: Madeleine 0.1

On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 11:37:56PM +0900, Anders Bengtsson wrote:
> > Note to WHY: please can we have a YAML::dump(object [,IO]) method,
> > for
> > symmetry with Marshal?
> 
> I could just add wrapping classes that wrap either Marshal or YAML, so
> a change in YAML won't be necessary. Unless it's a good idea for YAML
> anyway?

I don't think your code should have anything YAML-specific, because there
are many other marshalling modules you might want to use (SOAP being another
example). I think it should be up to the end-user to wrap them so that there
is a Foo::load and Foo::dump, if they don't have them already.

> There has been some talk about XML serialization on the Prevayler
> lists, which gives the advantage of using XSL to upgrade the data
> format. But I hope YAML's closer integration with Ruby itself makes
> upgrading even simpler.

And XML serialisation means SOAP, and if you want to use XSL to apply
on-the-fly changes to SOAP object structure, well good luck to you :-)

The point about the Prevayler approach is that your whole database is in RAM
- so if you want to make wholesale changes to its format, you just read it
in, modify it using code, and write it back out again.

Regards,

Brian.