storing to a file

[C.Reinke]

> There's been mention of a Binary module; ..  That said, there was
> also a post about using plain text.  I tend to agree, except for
> certain cases.  However, that is *not* to say that you should
> necessarily use Show/Read.  

| Actually, "deriving binary" would be a nice thing to have in general
| - even more, a way to add your own "deriving" things from within
| Haskell, although I have no idea how such a thing would work.

In this context, DrIFT should be mentioned:

http://www.haskell.org/communities/11-2002/html/report.html#sect5.2.1.1

http://repetae.net/john/computer/haskell/DrIFT/

Binary is already supported, I think (what about the new Binary
variants?), but adding new instance derivation rules for your own
external formats shouldn't be too difficult. So nobody has to stick
to Show/Read for convenience reasons if there are other arguments
against (such as those listed by Hal).

Claus

PS The Haskell ATerm Library might also be relevant?

   http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell/2002-May/009589.html

   (the jDrift mentioned there is subsumed by the upcoming 
    Drift2.0, merging various previous versions)