David Abrahams wrote:
"Robert Ramey" <ramey@rrsd.com> writes:
To summarize how we arrived here. =================================
<snip>
e) So it has been proposed binary_iarchive be re-implemented in the following way
iarchive - containg default implementation of load_array binary_iarchive - ? presumablu contains implementaion of load_array in terms of currently defined load_binary
Its not clear whether all archives would be modified in this way or just binary_iarchive.
This is extremely discouraging. After I stated many times that our design had been changed so as NOT to modify any code in the serialization library, after we put the array-optimized archives in a separate sub-namespace so that they could live alongside the existing ones in the library, after I offered to put all of the code in some remote part of Boost not associated with the serialization library, you state that we are proposing to change the serialization library code.
I was referring to :
archive/array/binary_iarchive.hpp ..................................
class binary_iarchive : public array::iarchive< array::binary_iarchive , archive::binary_iarchive_impl<binary_iarchive> > { template <class S> binary_iarchive(S& s, unsigned int flags) : binary_iarchive::iarchive_base(s,flags) {}
// use the optimized load procedure for all fundamental types. typedef boost::is_fundamental<mpl::_> use_array_optimization;
// This is how we load an array when optimization is appropriate. template <class ValueType> void load_array(ValueType * p, std::size_t n, unsigned int version) { this->load_binary(p, n * sizeof(ValueType)); } };
I'm also presuming - maybe incorrectly - that the serialization for something like a C++ array would contain code to invoke load_array. So if I re-compile an existing application and use it to load a binary_archive created under the previous version of the library the function load_array will be invoked. The same data will have been previously serialized with a loop of serializing each data member. Without knowing when load_array is invoked, one can't know for sure with the old archives will in fact be readable. Verifying that previously existing archives of type binary-?archive will be readable will be a non-trivial task. Robert Ramey