This is going to be a short one. After months of no releases, here it is: DeHL 0.8 (see changelog for the list of changes on this release). As I mentioned previously, this release will only work on Delphi 2010, since the number of changes required to support serialization was quite big.

I must confess, this is the first time in my programming career that I had to interact with serialization (excluding the times when the frameworks do that for you). I had to learn quite a bit and changed my internal design three times.

So, here’s an example how to serialize a TFormatSettings structure into binary format:

var
  LBinFile: TFileStream;
  LBinSerializer: TBinarySerializer<TFormatSettings>;
  LSettings: TFormatSettings;
begin
  { Obtain current thread's format settings }
  GetFormatSettings(GetThreadLocale(), LSettings);

  { Create a serializer and a file stream }
  LBinSerializer := TBinarySerializer<TFormatSettings>.Create();
  LBinFile := TFileStream.Create('dump_obj.bin', fmCreate);

  { Serialize the structure }
  try
    LBinSerializer.Serialize(LSettings, LBinFile);
  finally
    LBinFile.Free;
    LBinSerializer.Free;
  end;
end;

… and here’s an example how to deserialize it:

var
  LBinFile: TFileStream;
  LBinSerializer: TBinarySerializer<TFormatSettings>;
  LSettings: TFormatSettings;
begin
  { Create a serializer and a file stream }
  LBinSerializer := TBinarySerializer<TFormatSettings>.Create();
  LBinFile := TFileStream.Create('dump_obj.bin', fmOpenRead);

  { Deserialize the structure }
  try
    LBinSerializer.Deserialize(LSettings, LBinFile);
  finally
    LBinFile.Free;
    LBinSerializer.Free;
  end;
end;

Note: I have written quite a few unit tests to support the new changes, but most certainly there are hidden bugs. If you find one please report it here.

Other Note: I exhausted my idea jar regarding new features. If you have an idea please do not hesitate to drop me a comment or an email.

Have Fun!