[THRIFT-5213] Could writeBinary() accept arbitrary containers?

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 0.13.0
• Component/s: C++ - Compiler, C++ - Library
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Mario Emmenlauer
• Created: 19/May/20 15:34
• Updated: 19/May/20 15:34

Description

Currently `writeBinary()` accepts only `std::string` as a container. While this is well suitable for many applications, it has the downside that its not easily possible to create a "shallow" for external memory. There is no constructor for `std::string` that would reference external memory, and no portable way to swap memory in or out of a `std::string`.

However it seems relatively straightforward to accept arbitrary containers in writeBinary(), i.e. something like
```
template<typename T>
writeBinary(T&& str) {
...
```

Of course this would require that these definitions are inlined.

Are there any problems with this approach? Would that be a suitable (acceptable) extension for Thrift?