How to dump and restore an Object

TODO. Examples, understand better what really happens.

Problem. I want to dump an object and store it into the filesystem the recover it when I whish it will be a proper time. How do I do ?

Solution. There are several ways to solve this problem trading off simplicity and power. Let's go from the simplest to the most complex and powerful.

• Solution-1. The simplest, using ObjectFoo>>storeString or the equivalent for streams.
  • +] Very easy
  • +] The dump is human readable
  • -] It is not intended to dump cyclic structures
  • -] The internal variables of ObjectFoo are stored by position, not by name. If you change the class ObjectFoo and then try to recover and old dump you will make a mess.
• Solution-2. ReferenceStream>>dumpOnFile:
  • -] more complex, it spits out a binary file
  • +] restist to cycles in the data structure to dump
• Solution-3. SmartRefStream>>dumpOnFile:
  • -] even more complex, larger file, binary file
  • +] resist to cycles
  • +] resist to moderate changes in the ObjectFoo class because internal variable are stored with name and value.