I found the page with the updated config documentation on the trunk. a) What happens if the library is being compiled as a static library? The documentation says that BOOST_SYMBOL_EXPORT is always defined. So can I assume that if a static library is being built then it's defined a empty? The serialization library now contains things like #ifdef BOOST_HAS_DECLSPEC // defined in config system Which I believe is undefined for when the library is being built statically. So things currently work. What do I replace the #ifdef above with - if anything. I believe that exporting symbols from an imported static library would create all sorts of interesting surprises. b) the serialization library contains ... #if defined(__BORLANDC__) #define BOOST_ARCHIVE_DECL(T) T __export #define BOOST_ARCHIVE_OR_WARCHIVE_DECL(T) T __export #else #define BOOST_ARCHIVE_DECL(T) __declspec(dllexport) T #define BOOST_ARCHIVE_OR_WARCHIVE_DECL(T) __declspec(dllexport) T #endif This addresses the fact that with borland, the placement of the __export and typename differs in sequence from the rest. I haven't tested borland in a long time and it's broken for the serialization library anyway (and no one has complained) so I suppose you can just ignore this - but I'd thought I'd mention it. c) When will these new macros get checked into the release branch? d) It turns out that I've had to deal with this a lot more than anyone would want to. In my case, I've divided the code into two separate libraries - serialization.dll and wserialization.dll. The second includes only those parts which depend on wide character types. The motiviation is that one only needs the part he is really using. Problems come up as wserialization import symbols from serialization so the import/export issue get's sort of complicated. User programs have the same issue as I've found in making dll/plugin tests. I don't have a real point here, just noting my experiences with this issue. Robert Ramey