Cross-platform and language (de)serialization

Question

I\'m looking for a way to serialize a bunch of C++ structs in the most convenient way so that the serialization is portable across C++ and Java (at a minimum) and across 32bit/6

Answer 1

I'm surprised Jon Skeet hasn't already pounced on this one :-)

Protocol Buffers is pretty much designed for this sort of scenario -- passing structured data cross-language.

That said, if you're using a database the way you suggest, you really shouldn't be using a full-strength RDBMS like Oracle or SQL Server but rather a lightweight key-value store such as Berkeley DB or one of the many "cloud table" engines.