Re: [boost] [1.45][website] binary serialization fubar, website needs updating (was: Beta next week?)

Subject: Re: [boost] [1.45][website] binary serialization fubar, website needs updating (was: Beta next week?)
From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-10-15 04:17:11

Eric Niebler wrote:

> On 10/14/2010 11:55 PM, Robert Ramey wrote:
>> Sergey Voropaev wrote:
>>> Beman Dawes <bdawes <at> acm.org> writes:
>>>
>>> I think boost::serialization library has very serious flaw. It is
>>> lack of backward compatibility for binary archive. I discovered this
>>> problem when I did upgrade from 1.34 to 1.43 and 1.44 versions of
>>> BOOST. 1.44 library can not work with old binary archive. The reason
>>> - format of binary header of archive has been changed.
>>> I think 1.45 version should be corrected for this problem and/or we
>>> should place some announcement about recommendation not to use the
>>> 1.44 version to work with binary archive.
>>>
>>> See:
>>> https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/4660
>>> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/208588
>> 
>> I"m aware of this, it's just that I haven't the the time to deal with
>> it right now.  I've had a lot of trouble with this and I'm warying
>> of trying to fix it without having the time to do it right.
> 
> I just read through the bug report. Oh god. <sigh>
> 
> I'm open to hearing suggestions. Robert, it sounds like you're not going
> to be able to fix this any time soon, is that right? Then it sounds to
> me like binary serialization is just broken, full stop. If we decide to
> push ahead with 1.45, my opinion is that we put a #error in the binary
> serialization headers so that anybody who tries to use it gets a hard
> error. If you care about binary serialization, the answer is just to not
> use 1.45.
> 
> And not use 1.44 either, but that ship has sailed ... without even so
> much as a release note. I have to say, as a release manager, I'm
> seriously pissed off. Can anybody comment on why there isn't any note AT
> ALL about serialization on
> http://www.boost.org/users/news/version_1_44_0? 

I presume because if we knew about this breakage, we would not ship 1.44
with it?

- Volodya