serialization/doc/release.html
Robert Ramey 750080c20e added polymorphic helper tests
removed obsolete information from documentation
2015-04-11 10:14:37 -07:00

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<h1 align="center">
Serialization</h1>
<h2 align="center">
Release Notes</h2>
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<hr>
<dl class="index">
<dt><a href="#differences_1_59">Differences from version 1.58</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_58">Differences from version 1.48</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_45">Differences from version 1.45</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_43">Differences from version 1.43</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_42">Differences from version 1.42</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_41">Differences from version 1.41</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_40">Differences from version 1.40</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_39">Differences from version 1.39</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_37">Differences from version 1.37</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_35">Differences from version 1.35</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_34">Differences from version 1.34</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_33">Differences from version 1.33</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#differences_1_32">Differences from version 1.32</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#todo">Pending Issues</a></dt>
</dl>
As of this writing, there are no known bugs. However, due to compiler/library
quirks and or bugs, some tests fail with some combinations of compilers and
libraries.
<h2><a name="differences_1_59"></a>Differences from Boost 1.58</h2>
<ul>
<li>Eliminated support for Borland compilers and Microsoft compilers prior to version
7.1.
<li>Eliminated support for compilers which do not support Partial Function Template
Ordering (pfto).
<li>Added support for "visibility hidden" for GCC compilers. Shared libraries
will only expose symbols actually needed rather than all sympols in the library. This
should result in smaller shared libraries which are faster to load.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_58"></a>Differences from Boost 1.48</h2>
<ul>
<li>Added support for C++11 types such as std::shared_ptr, std::array, and others.
<li>Implemented the concept of a "Helper" which can be used to implement serialization of types which are otherwise not serializable."
<li>Made library compatible with C++11, Compatibility with C++03 has been maintained.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_45"></a>Differences from Boost 1.45</h2>
Since the release of version 1.42, it has been discovered that binary
archives created by versions 1.42-1.44 cannot always be read by the
recent binary archive code. Work has proceeded in detecting the source
of these anomolies and those which have been reported with test cases
have been fixed. As of this writing, it is not known whether all
binary archives created with these versions can be loaded.
<h2><a name="differences_1_43"></a>Differences from Boost 1.43</h2>
<ul>
<li>fixed bug in the serialization of virtual base classes. Due
to heroic efforts by Takatoshi Kondo.
<li>Native binary archives created under versions 1.42 and 1.43
suffer from a serious problem. It's likely they won't be readable
by this latest version. This due to the fact that 1.42 made some
changes in the binary format of some types. Normally this could
be addressed by detecting the library version number written into
the archive header. Unfortunately, this library version number
was not incremented at 1.42 as it should have been. So now we have
two different binary archive versions with the same library version
number.
<p>
This has been addressed by including a small utility in the example
directory named fix_six.cpp. This should be run with the command line<br>
<code><pre>
fix_six &lt;file name&gt;
</pre></code>
This will assign 7 to the library version number of the archive. This
fix will need to ba applied to native binary archives created with
boost versions 1.42 and 1.43.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_42"></a>Differences from Boost 1.42</h2>
<ul>
<li>fixed failure of shared_ptr serialization when serializing pointers
created from enable_shared_from_this.
<li>added example for a simple archive which can be used as a debug log.
This example illustrates the implemenation of the archive concept to aid
understanding required to create one's own archive classes. The resulting
archive is useful for debugging in that it only 160 lines of code and is
header only - that is, it doesn't required linking to the serialization library.
<li>replaced example used to show how to derive from an existing archive.
This example creates an XML archive class which doesn't include serialization
traits such as class_id, class_version, etc. It might be useful for exporting
one's class information to osme XML processor and/or debugging programs.
<li>compile time warnings have been implemented to detect practices which
though correct, will result in operation or side effects different than
a user probably intends.
<li>Some memory leaks associated with void_cast have been fixed.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_41"></a>Differences from Boost 1.41</h2>
<ul>
<li>adjustments have been made to minimize compile time warnings.
<li>compile time warnings have been implemented to detect practices which
though correct, will result in operation or side effects different than
a user probably intends.
<li>Some memory leaks associated with void_cast have been fixed.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_40"></a>Differences from Boost 1.40</h2>
This library has been tested against Boost version 1.39 and 1.40.
<p>
Changes have been made to archive classes included with the library. Users who
have used these a guide to making their own archive classes will find that
these will likely no longer compile. This can be remedied by making the
following changes in the code which instantiates these archive classes.
</p>
Old Code:<br>
<code><pre>
...
#include &lt;boost/archive/impl/archive_pointer_iserializer.ipp&gt;
...
template class detail::archive_pointer_iserializer&lt;naked_text_iarchive&gt; ;
...
template class detail::archive_pointer_iserializer&lt;text_iarchive&gt; ;
</pre></code>should be replaced with this new code: <code><pre>
#include &lt;boost/archive/impl/archive_serializer_map.ipp&gt;
...
template class detail::archive_serializer_map&lt;naked_text_iarchive&gt; ;
...
template class detail::archive_serializer_map&lt;text_iarchive&gt; ;
</pre></code>
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The serialization library uses the boost spirit package to load XML archives.
We have found that all tests pass using spirit 1.6x. Spirit 1.8 and higher does not work with
older compilers - specifically MSVC 6, Borland and GCC < 3.0.
If you are using one of these compilers, you may download a version
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To use this downloaded version rather than the one included with boost,
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set SPIRIT_ROOT=c:/spirit16
</code></pre>
If you're not using bjam and the Jamfile to build the library, be sure that
the directory which contains the version of spirit you plan to use is placed
at the front of the list of include paths.
-->
<h2><a name="differences_1_39"></a>Differences from Boost 1.39</h2>
<ul>
<li>
It is now possible to serialize an object through a pointer to a class which
implements its own <code style="white-space: normal">new/delete</code>
operators. This functionaly is not available on some compilers.
<li>
serialization of polymorphic objects has been sped up considerably.
</ul>
As of this writing, all bug reports filed as TRAK tickets have been addressed.
There are some TRAK tickets pending which would best be described as feature
requests. See <a href="#todo">Pending Issues</a>.
<h2><a name="differences_1_37"></a>Differences from Boost 1.37</h2>
There are no new features in this version. As of this writing, all bug reports
filed as TRAK tickets have been addressed. There are some TRAK tickets pending
which would best be described as feature requests. See <a href="#todo">Pending
Issues</a>.
<h2><a name="differences_1_36"></a>Differences from Boost 1.36</h2>
There are no new features in this version. As of this writing, all bug reports
filed as TRAK tickets have been addressed.
<h2><a name="differences_1_35"></a>Differences from Boost 1.35</h2>
<ul>
<li>
The library is now thread safe. That is, multiple archives can be open in
different threads. This has been implmented with a lock-free algorithm to avoid
any performance bottlenecks.
<li>
Serialization of types defined in shared libraries is now supported. shared
libraries (DLLS) can be loaded/unloaded dynamically at runtime. This includes
the serialization of instances of abstract base classes so that a program can
be written so as to be compatible with as yet undefined and un-implemented
code.
<li>
The extended type info system has been enhanced to in order to implement the
above. It is now a general purpose system for creating and casting of types
about which is only known a string ID and an abstract base class.
<li>
All bug reports filed as TRAK tickets have been addressed.
<li>
As of this writing, the library will fail build on older compilers such as MSVC
before version 7.1 and older versions of Borland compilers. This might or might
not change in the future.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_34"></a>Differences from Boost 1.34</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Enhanced support for fast serialization for native binary archives. By Mattias
Troyer.
<li>
Improved implementation of "export" functionality. Removes header ordering
requirement and eliminates the maintenance of a pre-determined list of "known
archives" By David Abrahams.
<li>
Improved support for STLPort.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_33"></a>Differences from Boost 1.33</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Native Binary archives use the <code style="white-space: normal">std::streambuf</code>
interface. This should result in noticeably faster execution in many cases.
</ul>
<h2><a name="differences_1_32"></a>Differences from Boost 1.32</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Dynamic Linking Library (DLLs and shared libraries) for platforms which support
them. See <a href="../../../more/getting_started/windows.html#auto-linking">Automatic
Linking on Windows</a>.
<li>
Implementation of auto-link for compilers which can support this.
<li>
Better support for <em>Argument Dependent Lookup</em>
and two-phase lookup. This results in simpler rules regarding the placing of
serialization specializations namespaces.
<li>
Enhanced documentation to help explain usage of the above.
<li>
Adjustments to improve support for less conformant compilers.
<li>
Improved <code>const</code> correctness for save/load operators. Note that this
may produce compile time errors in code which compiled without problem in
earlier boost releases. In most cases the fix is trivial. In other cases, code
should be scrutinized to be sure that it doesn't use the serialization system
in a way which may introduce subtle bugs in to the program. A fuller
explanation of this issue can be found <a target="detail" href="traits.html#tracking">
here</a>.
<li>
A new implementation of serialization for <code style="white-space: normal">shared_ptr&lt;T&gt;</code>.
This is compatible with public interface of <code style="white-space: normal">shared_ptr&lt;T&gt;</code>
so it should be more robust and not have to change in the future. The
implementation optionally includes code to load <code style="white-space: normal">shared_ptr&lt;T&gt;</code>
stored in archives created with boost 1.32. This code is stored in 'he header: <code style="white-space: normal">
boost/serialization/shared_ptr_132.hpp</code>. If your application needs to
load archives created with boost 1.32 libraries, include the above header
before each inclusion of <code style="white-space: normal">boost/serialization/shared_ptr.hpp</code>.
<li>
More compilers tested and supported.
<li>
Miscellaneous bug fixes.
</ul>
<h2><a name="todo"></a>Pending issues</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Rvalues cannot be serialized. It would be possible to implement this for
untracked types, but this has not been done.
<li>
Pointers to pointers cannot currently be serialized
<li>
It's possible that <code style="white-space: normal">std::string</code> and <code style="white-space: normal">
std::wstring</code>
contain characters such as '\0' and -1 (EOF) which cannot be rendered in text
and XML archives without an escape mechanism. Currently there is no such escape
mechanism implemented.
<li>
A subtle error in the implementation of serializaton of <code style="white-space: normal">
std::map</code> is fixed in this version. Unfortunately, the fix breaks
serialization of <code style="white-space: normal">std::map</code>
for those compilers which do not support partial template specialization. Also,
types which contain pointers or tracked types might not work correctly.
<li>
Serialization of virtual base classes relies upon RTTI. It will fail when used on
systems which don't have RTTI enabled.
</ul>
<p>
Aside from the above, there are a number of issues related to specific
platforms. These are listed in <a href="implementation.html#othercompilerissues">Specific
Compiler/Library Issues</a>.
<hr>
<p>
<i>&copy; Copyright <a href="http://www.rrsd.com">Robert Ramey</a> 2002-2009.
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) </i>
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