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Re: [java] making an object Serializable in Java

Posted by Peter Schuller on 2000-06-04

> In my application I plan on having user defined
> preferences. I think it would be a good idea to create
> a class called preferences and implement the
> serializable interface to store the results. Is this a
> good use of the serializable interface? I've never
> used it before so sorry for this crazy question!

Sounds like a good use, although you always have the problem that the data
is not human-readable.

There is also the slight chance that the use might change JDK to one that
has a non-compatible implementation of the standard API; this would make it
impossible to de-serialize the data on that JDK.

However, AFAIK all commercial JDKs these days are compatible with each other
in that respect.

Oh, and if you want to have a look at what serialization makes possible,
read up on RMI (Remote Method Invocation), which uses serialization to pass
exceptions and method arguments back and forth.

-- 
/ Peter Schuller, InfiDyne Technologies HB

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