From: Ronald Pijnacker <rhp@...>
Date: 2003-07-08T18:16:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Marshaling objects partially

> > Hi,
> > 
> > In message "Marshaling objects partially"
> >     on 03/07/07, Ronald Pijnacker <rhp@dse.nl> writes:
> > 
> > |I had a look at _dump and _load, but it seems to me that I'd have to
> > |solve the cyclic references myself again. Is this true?
> > 
> > Yes.
> > 
> > But if you use Marshal.dump for _dump, Marshal resolves cycles
> > (potential duplication might happen).
> 
> Thanks, this works fine.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions on how to orgainize _load and _dump such
> that in a class hierarchy every class level is responsible for streaming
> its own members?

On second tought... it does not seem to work fine for cycles. The
following example breaks down with a SystemStackError:

  class Foo
    attr_accessor :bar
    def _dump(limit)
      Marshal.dump([@bar], limit-1)
    end
    def Foo._load(str)
      data = Marshal.load(str)
      obj = self.new
      obj.bar = data.shift
    end
  end

  foo1 = Foo.new
  foo2 = Foo.new
  foo1.bar = foo2
  foo2.bar = foo1
  str = Marshal.dump(foo1)

It works ok without the _dump/_load part.

  Ronald.