Why do I serialize objects? I suppose because to certain extent I am a visual person. During the development phase of writing a module I usually dump out data structres and print tables of information. If a data structure is complex then seeing the ouput from a dumper can really help to see whats going (wr)on(g).

Also, for more serious uses, persistancy is a not uncommon requirement and serialization can be the simplest way to achieve it. Config files are a simple (and sometime abused) example but better to look at something like MLDBM.

And in my case, writing and breaking and fixing a number of different serialization modules (aka dumpers) has been both a hobby and an heavy duty course on perl esoterica. Some people do regexes or crazy ties, me I do dumpers. I hope to have a super duper improved version of Data::BFDump ready after the holidays. It should make dumping inside out objects a _lot_ easier.

:-)

--- demerphq
my friends call me, usually because I'm late....

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