TCP/IP endian conversion with ICustomMarshale r?

[Marquee]

Hello,

I have a class that I would like to serialize to non .NET TCP/IP
computers. Therefore the serial data has to endian aware i.e. has to be
converted from Intel little endian to network format (big endian).

Is the ICustomMarshale r the way to go here? I found a dummy
ICustomMarshale r implementation but this seems not to work, because I
get the following error: "Type PT_DATAFRAME can not be marshaled as an
unmanaged structure; no meaningful size or offset can be computed."
when I invoke Marshal.Sizeof( myobject ).

Does anybody know an example of struct serialization and custom
marshaling?
Are other (nice .NET!) methods to for endian neutral programming?
Of course I can shuffle the bytes in the generated stream (yuck).

Thanks!

***The class looks something like this:
[Serializable]
[StructLayout( LayoutKind.Sequ ential, CharSet=CharSet .Ansi, Pack = 1)]
struct PT_DATAFRAME
{
[MarshalAs(Unman agedType.Custom Marshaler, MarshalTypeRef =
typeof(PassThru .DummyMarshaler ))]
public int myValue;
};

***The custom marshaler:
public class DummyMarshaler : ICustomMarshale r
{
DummyMarshaler( )
{

}
public static ICustomMarshale r GetInstance( string cookie )
{
return new DummyMarshaler( );
}

public unsafe object MarshalNativeTo Managed( System.IntPtr
pNativeData )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .MarshalNativeT oManaged" );
return new System.Int32();
}

public unsafe IntPtr MarshalManagedT oNative( object ManagedObj )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .MarshalManated ToNative" );

throw new Exception( "should never get here" );
}

public unsafe void CleanUpNativeDa ta( IntPtr pNativeData )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .CleanUpNativeD ata" );
return;
}

public int GetNativeDataSi ze()
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .GetNativeData" );

//throw new Exception( "should never get here" );
return 4;
}

public void CleanUpManagedD ata( object ManagedObj )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .CleanUpManaged Data" );
return;
}
}

[William Stacey [MVP]]

IPAddress.Netwo rkToHostOrder
IPAddress.HostT oNetworkOrder

Static methods that can convert any short or int to and from.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Marquee" <al*********@ho tmail.com> wrote in message
news:ce******** @odak26.prod.go ogle.com...

Hello,

I have a class that I would like to serialize to non .NET TCP/IP
computers. Therefore the serial data has to endian aware i.e. has to be
converted from Intel little endian to network format (big endian).

Is the ICustomMarshale r the way to go here? I found a dummy
ICustomMarshale r implementation but this seems not to work, because I
get the following error: "Type PT_DATAFRAME can not be marshaled as an
unmanaged structure; no meaningful size or offset can be computed."
when I invoke Marshal.Sizeof( myobject ).

Does anybody know an example of struct serialization and custom
marshaling?
Are other (nice .NET!) methods to for endian neutral programming?
Of course I can shuffle the bytes in the generated stream (yuck).

Thanks!

***The class looks something like this:
[Serializable]
[StructLayout( LayoutKind.Sequ ential, CharSet=CharSet .Ansi, Pack = 1)]
struct PT_DATAFRAME
{
[MarshalAs(Unman agedType.Custom Marshaler, MarshalTypeRef =
typeof(PassThru .DummyMarshaler ))]
public int myValue;
};

***The custom marshaler:
public class DummyMarshaler : ICustomMarshale r
{
DummyMarshaler( )
{

}
public static ICustomMarshale r GetInstance( string cookie )
{
return new DummyMarshaler( );
}

public unsafe object MarshalNativeTo Managed( System.IntPtr
pNativeData )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .MarshalNativeT oManaged" );
return new System.Int32();
}

public unsafe IntPtr MarshalManagedT oNative( object ManagedObj )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .MarshalManated ToNative" );

throw new Exception( "should never get here" );
}

public unsafe void CleanUpNativeDa ta( IntPtr pNativeData )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .CleanUpNativeD ata" );
return;
}

public int GetNativeDataSi ze()
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .GetNativeData" );

//throw new Exception( "should never get here" );
return 4;
}

public void CleanUpManagedD ata( object ManagedObj )
{
//Console.WriteLi ne( "DummyMarshaler .CleanUpManaged Data" );
return;
}
}