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cl-bertdata-structuresserialization

This library implements a BERT serializer which is a part of the BERT-RPC, invented and used inside the GitHub.

Let's try how it serializes Lisp structures:

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode 1)
#(131 97 1)
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
1 (1 bit, #x1, #o1, #b1)

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode 100500)
#(131 98 0 1 136 148)
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
100500 (17 bits, #x18894)

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode 3.1415926535)
#(131 70 64 9 33 251 96 0 0 0)
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
3.1415927410125732d0

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode "Hello Lisp World!")
#(131 107 0 17 72 101 108 108 111 32 76 105 115 112 32 87 111 114 108 100 33)
;; Ups!
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
(72 101 108 108 111 32 76 105 115 112 32 87 111 114 108 100 33)

;; Let's try to recover our string from char codes
POFTHEDAY> (coerce (mapcar #'code-char *) 'string)
"Hello Lisp World!"

How about more complex structures?

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode (list 1 2 3 4 5))
#(131 108 0 0 0 5 97 1 97 2 97 3 97 4 97 5 106)
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
(1 2 3 4 5)

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode (vector 1 2 3 4 5))
; Debugger entered on #<SB-PCL::NO-APPLICABLE-METHOD-ERROR {1002D21E43}>

POFTHEDAY> (bert:encode (list 42 "Hello" (list 3 4 5)))
#(131 108 0 0 0 3 97 42 107 0 5 72 101 108 108 111 108 0 0 0 3 97 3 97
  4 97 5 106 106)
POFTHEDAY> (bert:decode *)
(42 (72 101 108 108 111) (3 4 5))

To recap:

• there is no documentation;
• there is a bug with strings support;
• vectors aren't supported;
• RPC is not implemented, but probably can be done on top of the cl-bert, if these problems will be solved.

Do you know other serialization libraries suitable for implementing a binary RPC protocol which will work for many programming languages?

See also

• cl-conspack