binary: efficient, pure binary serialisation using lazy ByteStrings ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The 'binary' package provides Data.Binary, containing the Binary class, and associated methods, for serialising values to and from lazy ByteStrings. A key feature of 'binary' is that the interface is both pure, and efficient. The 'binary' package is portable to GHC and Hugs. Building: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure runhaskell Setup.lhs build runhaskell Setup.lhs install First: import Data.Binary and then write an instance of Binary for the type you wish to serialise. More information in the haddock documentation. Deriving: It is possible to mechanically derive new instances of Binary for your types, if they support the Data and Typeable classes. A script is provided in tools/derive. Here's an example of its use. $ cd binary $ cd tools/derive $ ghci -fglasgow-exts BinaryDerive.hs *BinaryDerive> :l Example.hs *Main> deriveM (undefined :: Drinks) instance Binary Main.Drinks where put (Beer a) = putWord8 0 >> put a put Coffee = putWord8 1 put Tea = putWord8 2 put EnergyDrink = putWord8 3 put Water = putWord8 4 put Wine = putWord8 5 put Whisky = putWord8 6 get = do tag_ <- getWord8 case tag_ of 0 -> get >>= \a -> return (Beer a) 1 -> return Coffee 2 -> return Tea 3 -> return EnergyDrink 4 -> return Water 5 -> return Wine 6 -> return Whisky Contributors: Lennart Kolmodin Duncan Coutts Don Stewart Spencer Janssen David Himmelstrup Björn Bringert Ross Paterson Einar Karttunen John Meacham Ulf Norell Tomasz Zielonka Stefan Karrmann Bryan O'Sullivan Florian Weimer