[FrozenCow]

Wouldn't it be better to create serialization functionality at compile-time?

In the Java space some libraries are moving to compile-time code generation instead of relying on reflection. It is a huge win, since a lot more can be checked beforehand. Dagger 2 is a good example how it can be beneficial. It provides dependency injection at compile-time, which will in turn check whether all dependencies are satisfied. I haven't seen this being done at compile-time before, but it is definitely a step up from reflection-based DI.

I'm not sure whether macros of Rust can provide such functionality, but the developers seem conservative when it comes to adding functionality. That seems like a good thing.

[saboot]

I was referencing at compile time, yes. How does Dagger generate the code? Does it run an executable first?

Yes, in C++ there is a similar library called ROOT which generates c++ files called "dictionaries" storing class information by running an executable over the files. I don't see (or understand) the downsides in providing the functionality for performing those steps at compile time though. The developers of ROOT are currently pushing for it to be included in C++17 (or beyond).

[mercurial]

Sometime I wish no runtime reflection was available to the programmer at runtime in Java, this would prevent people from being tempted to use brittle runtime magic. Of course, you would need a solid macro system instead.

And thanks for the pointer to dagger, this looks like an interesting alternative.