[Haskell-cafe] serialize an unknown type

[Iustin Pop]

On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 07:20:10PM +0200, Corentin Dupont wrote:
> Hi,
> Sorry if it was not enough explicit.
> I want to write functions like this:
> 
> serialize :: (Show a) => Event a -> IO ()
> deserialize :: (Read a) => IO () -> Event a
> 
> The functions would write and read the data in a file, storing/retrieving
> also the type "a" I suppose...

Can't you simply, when defining the type event, add a "deriving (Show,
Read)"? Then the standard (but slow) read/show serialisation would work
for you.

If you're asking to de-serialise an unknown type (i.e. you don't know
what type it should restore a-priori, but you want to do that based on
the contents of the file), things become a little more complex. Unless
you can further restrict the type 'a', really complex.

Maybe stating your actual problem, rather than the implementation
question, would be better?

regards,
iustin