To clarify, I tried to do something like this back in the 90's and it was _not_ worth the effort.

Using something like Google's Protocol Buffers or a similar system where you generate a standard serialization backend for all the plain old data types you want to send across the network is way less of a pain in the ass.

If you're concerned about the overhead, look at MsgPack or Cap'n Proto - plenty of ways to shave the yak out there without needing to roll your own.