Parsing a binary file. What is a modern way?

Question

I have a binary file with some layout I know. For example let format be like this:

• 2 bytes (unsigned short) - length of a string
• 5 bytes (5 x chars) - the

Answer 1

Use a serialization library. Here are a few:

• Boost serialization and Boost fusion
• Cereal (my own library)
• Another library called cereal (same name as mine but mine predates theirs)
• Cap'n Proto