Yeah, that's what I meant by "serialization". Think of it as "flattening". An SMF record is really a "flattening" of, in many cases, a nested object model. But how consumable are SMF records? It would be nice, IMO, if there were a common "schema" for each SMF "object" that described the structure and attributes of each nested type. For existing SMF formats, then you would also need a specification that mapped the logical schema into the current physical structure.
But once you had that, you could map back to the logical model, and then render it using your favorite serialization protocol. Google Protocol Buffers might be the most attractive in this case, but you wouldn't be stuck with any particular one. XML would work also, but a binary protocol would be much faster. Of course, this doesn't address the problem of "what does the data mean"..... On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 3:28 PM, John McKown <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:19:25 -0400, Farley, Peter x23353 > <[email protected]> wrote: > >>Kirk, >> >>Pardon my ignorance, but when you say "serialization", what do you mean >>by that term? "Serialization" to me has always meant synchronizing >>multiple users of the same resource (the classic readers and writers >>problem), and I don't see how that applies to transforming SMF to XML >>(or JSON or any of the other alternatives you mentioned). >> >>TIA for helping to cure my ignorance. >> >>Peter > > As stated by Wikipedia: > > <quote> > In computer science, in the context of data storage and transmission, > serialization is the process of converting an object into a sequence of bits > so that it can be stored on a storage medium (such as a file, or a memory > buffer) or transmitted across a network connection link. > </quote> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialization > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
