[bpicolo]

> What you need is to provide a set of functions able to map between these formats and whatever optimal way you want to store them in

One important thing to remember with taking this approach is that you can work yourself into a huge bind if you store the mapped-versions in logs/other persistent storage and end up needing to change formats later. Say the original mapping version is based on 32 bit integers, or is cryptographically signed and your keys get exposed. If rolling the functions means you can no longer identify objects from logs / in databases, that's a huge problem.

That means things like access logs will no longer map to their respective current versions unless you keep around two separate encoder/decoders and are able to guess which version you need all the time.

It can become a big, unfun problem pretty fast.

[pcalcado]

That's a great point, thanks.