Re: [Boost-users] [Serialization] Compatibility of text archives in1.36 and 1.34

From: Allen Cronce (allenslists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-09-02 11:57:31

I have to admit that I don't know much about boost serialize yet. I  
plan to evaluate it for a project we're working on.

But if that description of the version design is accurate, it seems  
very limiting. It sounds like it's only safe to use boost serialize  
when you've got complete control of the executable versions accessing  
the persistent data.

If forwards and backwards executable and persistent data compatibility  
is a requirement, then maybe Thrift (from the Facebook guys) would fit  
the bill? Thrift has a versioning design that allows new executables  
to create new persistent data that can still be understood by old  
executables. Essentially each element of a Thrift structure is  
individually versioned with a unique ID. It's an interesting take on  
the versioning issue.

Thrift is a very different approach than boost serialize though. It's  
primarily a cross language protocol framework, that happens to also  
support persistent storage. It uses a C-like definition language to  
describe the persistent or on-the-wire protocol structures. It then  
generates the corresponding code for all sorts of languages. Note that  
there's no support for object inheritance with Thrift objects, which  
is a significant limitation.

Best,
--
Allen Cronce
On Aug 31, 2008, at 9:33 PM, Robert Ramey wrote:
>
> Glenn Ramsey wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I recently upgraded from boost 1.34 to boost 1.36. A version of my
>> application built with 1.36 can read the text archives produced by
>> 1.34, but a version of my application built with 1.34 cannot read the
>> text archives produced by 1.36.
>>
>> Is this the behaviour that I should expect?
>
> yes.  We currently guarentee the ability to read archives made by  
> previous
> versions of the library.  We do not guarentee the ability to read  
> archives
> made by future versions of the library.
>
> Robert Raey
>
>
>> Glenn
>
>
>
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