Un/serialize functions?

[Grant Edwards]

In article <c73a070e.0208052111.798f21d5 at posting.google.com>, d2002xx wrote:

> Is it possible to serialize a complete function/method, and
> unserialize without involving its source file?

I've always been curious why converting a data structure into a
system-independent representation is called "serializing". I've
looked around on Google and haven't really found anything.
Anybody know the etymology of "serializing" a data structure?

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  Are you mentally here
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