Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!oddjob!tank!ncar!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!chinet!mcdchg!simsdevl!dandc
From: dandc@simsdevl.UUCP (Dan DeClerck)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Portability across architectures..
Summary: C, portability, structures
Keywords: Portability, common data, files
Message-ID: <103@simsdevl.UUCP>
Date: 26 Aug 88 18:08:08 GMT
References: none
Reply-To: dandc@simsdevl.UUCP (Dan DeClerck)
Distribution: all
Organization: Motorola, Schaumburg, IL
Lines: 13

I've run across a need to have data files in various forms of UN*X
be portable to each other. Mostly, this deals with Intel to Motorola and 
vice-versa. I could write data out to files in ASCII, but this is cumbersome, 
slow and may hamper the products' marketability. 

The problem lies in writing integers as well as structures to files, and allow those files to be transferred between a multitude of machines without a data transformation taking place.

A fellow programmer suggested an "XDR" standard from SUN, but this seems to only work with inter-process communication. Has anyone encountered this problem??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dan DeClerck               dandc@rutgers!mcdchg!simsdevl

Motorola SIMS development group...     "SIMS", it anticipates every need.....
Schaumburg, Il