> and ORMs are a powerful and delightful way to do this I think we'll end up disagreeing there. However, I think this type of model could maybe work better fo

> and ORMs are a powerful and delightful way to do this I think we'll end up disagreeing there. However, I think this type of model could maybe work better for "static" serialization/deserialization of file formats. But even so, I think the biggest part that's missing is a convenient way to describe the mapping between the structure of the serialized data and the internal representation. ORMs typically give you a single method of doing that mapping, which can work when you have control over the serialized representation. But it doesn't work very well when you're serializing to an existing file format, for example. > Does `serde`[1] look like it's close to your imagined mark? No, serde is exactly what I was talking about in terms of the serialized data matching your internal data structures. I think it's a necessary piece, but I think the part that's missing is a nice way to map that data to the representation your program want's to work on.