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[EddieBytes]

Google protobuf
Noticed some of you hate writing save/load code. I use it for game saving/loading and networking. It's awesome.
A quote from the website:

Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an efficient yet extensible format. Google uses Protocol Buffers for almost all of its internal RPC protocols and file formats.

You write a .proto file like this:

Code:

message Person {
  required int32 id = 1;
  required string name = 2;
  optional string email = 3;
}

Then you compile it with protoc, the protocol buffer compiler, to produce code in C++, Java, or Python.

Then, if you are using C++, you use that code like this:

Code:

Person person;
person.set_id(123);
person.set_name("Bob");
person.set_email("[email protected]");

fstream out("person.pb", ios::out | ios::binary | ios::trunc);
person.SerializeToOstream(&out);
out.close();

Pure awesomeness that right there. Enjoy!

PS: No point in writing a tutorial myself here, a very easy and comprehensive one can be found on the official page I linked at the beginning of this post.