I think it's great to make things Serializable as it helps move objects around. However, we should try to come up with some stable serialization formats. I don't know how many times I've had to diagnose cache-related problems due to serialization formats changing. Personally, I use a serialization pattern based on Externalizable and I always end the object stream with a boolean to indicate whether or not there is more data available (i.e., extended versions). I'm not sure how well this would work in a public API, but it's worked rather well in practice so far in preventing incompatible class errors and the like.
-- Matt Sicker <[email protected]>
