Sure, a small header that contains type and length is trivial and pretty much implied in my previous comment. I don't think people should think too much about

Sure, a small header that contains type and length is trivial and pretty much implied in my previous comment. I don't think people should think too much about "what if we change language", etc. because (1) that's unlikely to happen, (2) you have years ahead of you, (3) it may be simpler to convert structs (not the most complicated thing in the world amd supported in most languages in one form or another) into whatever else when/if you actually need it than to overengineer now 'just in case'.