I want to sequence data structures in an efficient manner, to store them to files and to send them over the network.
Simply deriving Show and Read is not very good, because it's space inefficient and read cannot give any output until the whole data structure is parsed.
So I thought I should store them in some space efficient format.
First problem: how to make them derivable (so that I don't have to write boilerplate class instances for all my data structures).
I read the "derivable type classes" paper, but it's not implemented in ghc (only Unit and :+: and :*: are, which is not enough).
So how to go about it? Using DrIFT? Template Haskell?
[Shameless plug]: This is typically the kind of thing Generic Haskell was designed for: http://www.generic-haskell.org/ For more information you can also consult your local Generic Programming expert Patrik Jansson. -- Johan Jeuring