SYNOPSIS
        int    save_object (string name)
        string save_object ()             (PRELIMINARY)

DESCRIPTION
        Encode the publicly visible variables of the current object
        into a string.

        In the first form, the string is written to the file <name>.
        A suffix ".c" will be stripped from the name, the suffix ".o"
        may be added by the master object during the check in
        valid_read(). Result is 0 if the save file could be created,
        and non-zero on a non-fatal error (file could not be written,
        or current object is destructed).

        In the second form the string is returned directly. If the
        object is destructed, the result is 0.

HISTORY
        Since LDMud 3.2.8, save_object() returns a success value.
        The direct encoding into a string was added in LDMud 3.2.8, but
        may be moved into a different efun in future.

SEE ALSO
        restore_object(E), save_value(E)
