I have a recursive class that looks like

[Serializable]

public class RTree<T> : IEnumerable<RTree<T>>, ISerializable

{

public List<RTree<T>> Nodes; // Container for Nodes

public T Value; // Value at this node

public RTree<T> Parent; // Contains the parent node

...

So its "recursive". The problem is that when I use the default serialization
of the class I get about 100x bloating than I need cause it tries to
describe all the objects in the class. Here is the output for a simple Rtree
using short strings,

......................CGCollections, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=null.....rGCollections.RTree`1[[System.String, mscorlib,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]].....Nodes.Value.Parent.....System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[GCollections.RTree`1[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], GCollections, Version=1.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]]rGCollections.RTree`1[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]...................Start........System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[GCollections.RTree`1[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], GCollections, Version=1.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=null]]....._items._size._version...tGCollections.RTree`1[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]][]..................................rGCollections.RTree`1[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]...................................................1................

So I want to serialize it my own way but I don't know how to go about it.  I
also want to be able to serialize the generic type but I need to be able to
handle the "standard" way. Also I will, of course, want the ability to use
the binary and xml format.

Can this be done with ISerilizable? Do I need to create my own interface
and/or methods or what? I know I can write a method such as WriteToFile that
will dump the tree to file using my own way of organizing but I'd like to
somehow keep it within the ISerializable framework if possible.

Thanks,

Jon