Replacement for XML Serialization

Question

I have code using XmlSerializer to serialize/deserialize a data structure for persistance. I\'ve read and heard in several places here on StackOverflow that

Answer 1

XmlSerializer is perfectly supportable, but has some glitches;

• relatively slow; but usually this is still fast enough
• only supports public members; can be a pain
• requires write accessors lists - just ugly

However, I expect it to continue to be there for a considerable time; IMO, it is BinaryFormatter that has the real problems (when used for persistence).

I'm very biased (since I'm the author), but I'd choose protobuf-net; a binary serializer using Google's "protocol buffers" wire format; fast, portable between languages/platforms, very small output, version tolerant, etc (and free, of course). Clearly not xml, though - so not human readable.