Good question. I *think* the answer is to take the referenced objects across as one normally would, and then wrap them in a weak collection (if that is what was serialized). If one had only a weak collection holding the objects, they will be short-lived. However, something like a registry should be able to save/re-loaded, probably much like Dolphin's STBProxies: the effect of serializing the weak collection includes running some code to recreate conditions as needed. Looking forward to a lively debate... Bill ________________________________________ From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of Mariano Martinez Peck [marianopeck@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:38 PM To: Pharo Development Subject: [Pharo-project] Should a serializer do something in particular with weak references? Hi guys. Martin and I were discussing whether we should do something in particular in Fuel with Weak references, such as WeakArray. Should we serialize it the same way we serialize all objects, or should we do something special? what could be the impact of materializing such weak references in a new image for example? Thanks your sharing your thoughts. -- Mariano http://marianopeck.wordpress.com