Writing Classes to File

[Jeremy]

In article <e3o0d4$1tdc$1 at digitaldaemon.com>, Sean Kelly says...
>
>Jeremy wrote:
>> Is there a way I can just write a whole class to a file?
>> 
>> For example, why can't I do:
>> 
>> file.writeExact(someClass, someClass.sizeof);
>> 
>> This seems to just write 4 bytes, which must be the pointer.
>> 
>> The compiler complains when I do this:
>> 
>> file.writeExact(*someClass, (*someClass).sizeof);
>> 
>> Saying that '*' is only used infront of pointers -- but aren't class always
>> represented with pointers?
>
>They are, but I think they don't have the same semantics as pointers 
>insofar as the type is concerned.  This is what inspired me to make the 
>"isizeof" proposal a few weeks ago, as there's currently no way to get a 
>class' size at compile-time.  However, you can get it a run-time via:
>
>someClass.classinfo.init.length
>
>
>Sean

Interesting... so could this be done:

file.writeExact(someClass, someClass.classinfo.init.length);

to write the entire class to a file? (I'd like to do some zlib compression on it
too :-D )