Re: java serialization alternative

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jeffrey Kesselman <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Bob Lee wrote:
>
>> You can't accuse me of not knowing serialization. I know the spec inside
>> and
>> out.
>>
> Alright, then justify your opinion with solid facts.  What is it in
> Serialization that you can point to that makes it such that ti has to be
> either bloated or slow?


While an approach like PBs is more efficient by default, I've never had
performance problems with serialization. I've always found it to be one of
the fastest approaches available; the implementation itself is very good.

My problem with serialization is with the lack of tooling potential and all
the problems you run into when it comes time to upgrade your code in a
compatible way. The fact that serialization can serialize your objects
transparently is deceptively seductive. The result is almost never what I
want, so I end up writing the code manually anyway and the result is much
messier than if I had used PBs or something else (though I suppose you could
use PBs within your serialization logic!).

I'm for more transparent approaches that encourage you to do the right thing
by default and not tie your serialized state (part of your published API)
too closely to your implementation.

It's difficult to debate serialization unless you focus on specific use
cases. I don't think you're interested in this case, but APIs are one area
where serialization is heavily used, especially in the JDK. I've run into
countless situations where I try to refactor some code but maintaining
serialization compatibility limits what I can do (and I do understand
serialization in and out and everything you can do to maintain
compatibility). java.text.DateFormatSymbols and
java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap are two cases I've run into recently.

Like many, I used to think serialization was a good fit for more "transient"
use cases like replicating HttpSessions, but I definitely don't think that
anymore. What do you do when it comes time to upgrade your servers? I can
give you lots of great answers, but none are as good as "don't use
serialization in the first place."

Bob

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