XTL is a library of template classes and functions for reading/writing
structured data to/from an external (platform independent) representation.
This process is also usually known as marshalling, serialization or pickling,
and is useful both for heterogeneous network programming and portable
persistent storage.

Currently, XTL supports XDR (Internet standard), GIOP CDR (CORBA standard)
and readable ascii text (write-only) as data formats. Memory buffers and C++
iostreams are usable as data sources/targets. Besides the usual C data types
(basic, structs, pointers, unions), the XTL also supports C++ constructs,
such as pointers to base classes and template types, namely, STL containers.

XTL does not include any kind of IDL, and as such, the programmer is required
to write a "filter" for each data type. The API is somewhat modeled on the
original XDR library by Sun, in that the same filter is used for both reading
and writing. However, heavy usage of templates makes the API simpler and type
safe. Function inlining and careful avoidance of pointers or virtual
functions, also make generated code faster.

WWW: http://xtl.sourceforge.net/