# BinVerSe (**Bin**ary **Ver**sioned **Se**rializer)
Provides fast binary serialization with versioning to store data in a backwards-compatible, compact way.
Right now, the crate is still **work in progress** and I wouldn't recommend using it for larger projects as breaking changes and problems might occur.
**Warning: until version 1.0, nothing is guaranteed to be backwards compatible!**
## Features
- [x] Simple, fast binary serialization
- [x] Versioning using revision numbers
- [x] Error handling
- [x] Procedural macros to avoid boilerplate code
- [x] Versioning/size attributes using macros
- [ ] Documentation
## Basic example
```rust
use binverse::{serialize::Serialize, streams::{Deserializer, Serializer}};
use binverse_derive::serializable;
fn main() {
// Add #[serializable] for automatic Serialize/Deserialize
// implementations and version handling.
#[serializable]
#[derive(Debug, PartialEq)]
struct Example {
a: i32,
b: f32,
c: String
}
let example = Example {
a: -1253891,
b: 44223.125,
c: String::from("Hello binverse!")
};
// Create a serializer that writes into a Vec<u8>, could be replaced by
// a file/network stream etc.
let mut serializer = Serializer::new(Vec::new(), 0).unwrap();
// Serialize the example struct into the serializer.
example.serialize(&mut serializer).unwrap();
// Get back the Vec<u8>.
let data = serializer.finish();
// The length of the data is pretty predictable:
assert_eq!(data.len(),
4 // bytes for revision so the data can be read in future versions
+ 4 // a: i32
+ 4 // b: f32
+ 1 // length of the following string
// (saved using VarInt, can be changed to a constant byte size)
// the bytes of the string:
+ "Hello binverse!".len()
);
// Create a deserializer to recreate the Example instance using the data.
let mut deserializer = Deserializer::new(data.as_slice()).unwrap();
// Deserialize the struct.
let example_deserialized: Example = deserializer.deserialize().unwrap();
// Both versions match
assert_eq!(example, example_deserialized);
}
```