Serializing objects

1. Using a module in the language, a program can write out a complete representation of some current data structure to a file.
   
   
2. Using the same module, that file can be read by a program (same, or another).

• Easy to use (in some cases).
  
  
• No need to fiddle with parsing; already implemented in the module.
  
  
• Directly available in Perl and Python (script languages).
  
  
• May be portable between machines.
  
  
• Can't be done easily in C, C++ (compiled languages).
  
  
• But: language-specific.