Adventures in Serialization: A Flexible Approach for Embedded Systems in C++

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" summary

Built a C++20 serialization library that actually implements dozens of real legacy encodings — 5-bit integers, 3-byte floats, B64 blobs and packed bitfields — to handle hundreds of message formats used in submarine navigation. It uses an archive/save/load facade, declarative transformers (scale, offset, hex/string, odd-sized ints), and leverages boost pfr and cpp-bits for aggregate reflection; claim is near zero runtime overhead when fully inlined, and the library is in active use.

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" chapters (18)

1. 0:00Introduction
2. 1:11Custom data formats in defense
3. 2:36Serialization libraries
4. 5:27Embedded serialization needs
5. 6:56Archive-based architecture
6. 9:46Serialization in structs
7. 15:29Complex type serialization
8. 21:04Iterating struct members
9. 29:22Data format transformations
10. 36:51Bitfields and odd-sized ints
11. 41:08Combining transformations
12. 45:52Summary
13. 46:54Q&A: Method placement
14. 48:44Q&A: Compile-time vs runtime
15. 50:48Q&A: Error handling
16. 53:20Q&A: Schema versioning
17. 54:26Q&A: Libraries and Boost PFR
18. 57:01Q&A: Cross-module RPC

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