A Fast/Compact Serialization Framework

/*

OpenNxSerialization Framework
Copyright (C) 2006 - 2008 "NeXtreme Innovations"
[The Next Xtreme Innovations]

This program is free software, distributed under the terms of
the GNU General Public License Version 2. See the "License.txt" file
at the top of the source tree.

*/
using System;
using NeXtreme.OpenNxSerialization.IO;

namespace NeXtreme.OpenNxSerialization
{
    /// <summary> 
    /// Implementations of <see cref="INxSerializable"/> can add their state directly to the output stream, 
    /// enabling them to bypass costly serialization.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Objects that implement <see cref="INxSerializable"/> must have a default 
    /// constructor (can be private). 
    /// <para>
    /// As per current implementation when a <see cref="INxSerializable"/> is deserialized 
    /// the default constructor is not invoked, therefore the object must "construct" itself in 
    /// <see cref="INxSerializable.Deserialize"/>.
    /// </para>
    /// </remarks>
    public interface INxSerializable
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Load the state from the passed stream reader object.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="reader">A <see cref="INxBinaryReader"/> object</param>
        /// <remarks>
        /// As per current implementation when a <see cref="INxSerializable"/> is deserialized 
        /// the default constructor is not invoked, therefore the object must "construct" itself in 
        /// <see cref="INxSerializable.Deserialize"/>.
        /// </remarks>
        void Deserialize(INxBinaryReader reader);

        /// <summary>
        /// Save the the state to the passed stream reader object.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="writer">A <see cref="INxBinaryWriter"/> object</param>
        void Serialize(INxBinaryWriter writer);
    }
}