Re: Object (de)serialization

Hi guys,
I'm trying to write the contents of a set of classes to a file in a
reasonably portable way. Obviously I also want to be able to read the
files back into memory later on. At this point, my serializer works fine;
I can create an object (or several objects) and save them to a file. Now
I need to get them back out of the file...

I've been reading the C++ FAQ (notably Section 36, Serialization and
Unserialization) and I've been writing small prototype apps to try and
learn how all this stuff works. I came up with this, based on the textual
description in C++ FAQ 36.8:

#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Shape {
        public:
                Shape() { cerr<<"ctor: Shape\n"; };
                static std::map<std::string, Shape *> cre=

                virtual Shape *create(string data) const =

                virtual string getType() const =0;
                static Shape *deserialise(string data) {
                        return creationMap[data]-=
create(data);
                }

};

class Triangle : public Shape {
        public:
                Triangle() {
                        cerr<<"ctor: Triangle\n";
                        creationMap["triangle"] =

                }