[boost] Boost::Serialization (XML in specific) and VS2005 issues

From: Drew Hohmann (drew_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-24 08:25:47

I've found a few minor issues with the Boost::Serialization in VS2005.

-C++ Exceptions are set to Yes (/EHsc) and the boost library isn't 
automatically detecting this.  I had to manually declare _CPPUNWIND in 
the preprocessor.

-I needed to add #pragma warning(disable:4267) to 
collections_save_imp.hpp to get rid of warnings due to unsigned int 
count = s.size();  (containers use size_t as their size, not an unsigned 
int.  Could be trouble in 64-bit world with really large containers).

-I had to #define _SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS 1   , as otherwise I get 
warning C4996 from  compat_traits_type::copy(newptr, oldptr, 
prev_size);  in alt_sstream_impl.hpp

-The tutorial says to use   ar & 
|boost::serialization::base_object<bus_stop>(*this); to save the base 
class.  This doesn't work when saving XML, as the 
|BOOST_SERIALIZATION_NVP macro blows up because : is not a valid file 
character.  I ended up doing
|bus_stop |&bsbase = dynamic_cast<bus_stop_corner&> (*this);
ar & bsbase
to save the base class.
I'm not sure if BOOST_SERIALIZATION_NVP also has issues with a 
dereferenced pointer, as I didn't try but I suspect it may 
(BOOST_SERIALIZATION_NVP(*this)) for example.

-In MFC serialization it is common to do the following
bus_stop bs;
archive << &bs;

bus_stop *pbs = NULL;
archive >> pbs

the MFC CArchive automatically allocates the memory when archiving back 
a pointer.  Using boost, I was getting no warnings, no errors, and it 
was a very difficult bug to track down because the only error I would 
get would be an exit code 3 from one of my threads.  The tutorial should 
document this, and ideally boost::serialization should either give a 
warning or an error if the user tries to do this.

Thanks, let me know if you need any more info or have any questions.
Drew Hohmann
Software Engineer
drew_at_[hidden]