boost_1_45_0/libs/serialization/doc/todo.html - nest-learning-thermostat/5.0/boost - Git at Google

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       <h1 align="center">Serialization</h1>
       <h2 align="center">To Do</h2>
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 <dl class="index">
   <dt><a href="#portablebinaryarchives">Portable Binary Archives</a></dt>
   <dt><a href="#performancetesting">Performance Testing and Profiling</a></dt>
   <dt><a href="#backversioning">Back Versioning</a></dt>
   <dt><a href="#nortti">Testing for Environments with No RTTI</a></dt>
   <dt><a href="new_case_studies.html">Additional Case Studies</a></dt>
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 These are enhancements that the serialization library needs but have not been done.
 Some of these projects, though tricky, are not huge and would be suitable
 for someone who has a limited time to spend on them.  In particular, they
 might be of interest as student projects such as the Google Summer of Code.

 <h2><a name="portablebinaryarchives"></a>Portable Binary Archives</h2>
 Currently there is a portable binary archive in the examples directory.
 It is not regularly submitted to the exhaustive boost testing regimen
 but it is tested occasionally and has been used in production code.
 <p>
 Its missing the following:
 <ul>
   <li>Addition of portable floating point types.  This is not trivial.  In addition to
   handling floating point types of varying sizes, It requires
   handling invalid floating point numbers (NaNs) in a portable manner.
   <li>Some way to test archive portability within the Boost testing regimen.
   <li>Integration into the Boost testing similar to the other archive classes.
 </ul>

 <h2><a name="performancetesting"></a>Performance Testing and Profiling</h2>

 I've managed to setup performance profiling using the following:
 <ul>
   <li>current (as I write this) Boost.Build tools.
   <li>the gcc compiler.
   <li>and a shell script - profile.sh
   <li>library_status program from the tools/regression/src directory
 </ul>
 Invoking profile script produces a
 <a href="performance_status.html">table</a>
 which shows the results of each test and links to the actual
 profile.
 <p>
 The first thing I did was include some of the serialization library tests.
 It became immediatly apparent that these tests were totally unsuitable
 for performance testing and that new tests needed to be written for this
 purpose.  These tests would highlight the location of any performance
 bottlenecks in the serialization library.  Whenever I've subjected my
 code in the past to this type of analysis, I've always been suprised
 to find bottlenecks in totally unanticipated places and fixing those
 has always lead to large improvements in performance.  I expect that
 this project would have a huge impact on the utility of the serialization
 library.

 <h2><a name="backversioning"></a>Back Versioning</h2>

 It has been suggested that a useful feature of the library would be
 the ability to create "older versions" of archives.  Currently,
 the library permits one make programs that are guarenteed
 the ability to load archives with classes of a previous version.
 But there is not way to save classes in accordance with a
 previous version.  At first I dismissed this a a huge project
 with small demand.  A cursory examination of the code revealed
 that this would not be very difficult.  It would require some
 small changes in code and some additional tests.  Also it
 would require special treatment in the documentation - perhaps
 a case study.


 <h2><a name="nortti"></a>Environments without RTTI</h2>

 I note that some have commented that this library requires RTTI.
 This is not strictly true.  The examples and almost all the
 tests presume the existence of RTTI.  But it should be possible
 to use the library without it.  The example used for testing is an
 <code style="white-space: normal">extended_typeinfo</code>
 implemenation which presumes that all classes names have been exported.
 So, to make this library compatible for platforms without RTTI,
 a set of tests, examples and new manual section would have to be created

 <hr>
 <p>Revised 1 November, 2008
 <p><i>&copy; Copyright <a href="http://www.rrsd.com">Robert Ramey</a> 2002-2008.
 Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
 accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
 </i></p>
 </body>
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	(C) Copyright 2002-4 Robert Ramey - http://www.rrsd.com .
	Use, modification and distribution is subject to the Boost Software
	License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
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	<title>Serialization - To Do</title>
	</head>
	<body link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080">
	<table border="0" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="header">
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" width="300">
	<h3><a href="../../../index.htm"><img height="86" width="277" alt="C++ Boost" src="../../../boost.png" border="0"></a></h3>
	</td>
	<td valign="top">
	<h1 align="center">Serialization</h1>
	<h2 align="center">To Do</h2>
	</td>
	</tr>
	</table>
	<hr>
	<dl class="index">
	<dt><a href="#portablebinaryarchives">Portable Binary Archives</a></dt>
	<dt><a href="#performancetesting">Performance Testing and Profiling</a></dt>
	<dt><a href="#backversioning">Back Versioning</a></dt>
	<dt><a href="#nortti">Testing for Environments with No RTTI</a></dt>
	<dt><a href="new_case_studies.html">Additional Case Studies</a></dt>
	</dl>

	These are enhancements that the serialization library needs but have not been done.
	Some of these projects, though tricky, are not huge and would be suitable
	for someone who has a limited time to spend on them. In particular, they
	might be of interest as student projects such as the Google Summer of Code.

	<h2><a name="portablebinaryarchives"></a>Portable Binary Archives</h2>
	Currently there is a portable binary archive in the examples directory.
	It is not regularly submitted to the exhaustive boost testing regimen
	but it is tested occasionally and has been used in production code.
	<p>
	Its missing the following:
	<ul>
	<li>Addition of portable floating point types. This is not trivial. In addition to
	handling floating point types of varying sizes, It requires
	handling invalid floating point numbers (NaNs) in a portable manner.
	<li>Some way to test archive portability within the Boost testing regimen.
	<li>Integration into the Boost testing similar to the other archive classes.
	</ul>

	<h2><a name="performancetesting"></a>Performance Testing and Profiling</h2>

	I've managed to setup performance profiling using the following:
	<ul>
	<li>current (as I write this) Boost.Build tools.
	<li>the gcc compiler.
	<li>and a shell script - profile.sh
	<li>library_status program from the tools/regression/src directory
	</ul>
	Invoking profile script produces a
	<a href="performance_status.html">table</a>
	which shows the results of each test and links to the actual
	profile.
	<p>
	The first thing I did was include some of the serialization library tests.
	It became immediatly apparent that these tests were totally unsuitable
	for performance testing and that new tests needed to be written for this
	purpose. These tests would highlight the location of any performance
	bottlenecks in the serialization library. Whenever I've subjected my
	code in the past to this type of analysis, I've always been suprised
	to find bottlenecks in totally unanticipated places and fixing those
	has always lead to large improvements in performance. I expect that
	this project would have a huge impact on the utility of the serialization
	library.

	<h2><a name="backversioning"></a>Back Versioning</h2>

	It has been suggested that a useful feature of the library would be
	the ability to create "older versions" of archives. Currently,
	the library permits one make programs that are guarenteed
	the ability to load archives with classes of a previous version.
	But there is not way to save classes in accordance with a
	previous version. At first I dismissed this a a huge project
	with small demand. A cursory examination of the code revealed
	that this would not be very difficult. It would require some
	small changes in code and some additional tests. Also it
	would require special treatment in the documentation - perhaps
	a case study.


	<h2><a name="nortti"></a>Environments without RTTI</h2>

	I note that some have commented that this library requires RTTI.
	This is not strictly true. The examples and almost all the
	tests presume the existence of RTTI. But it should be possible
	to use the library without it. The example used for testing is an
	<code style="white-space: normal">extended_typeinfo</code>
	implemenation which presumes that all classes names have been exported.
	So, to make this library compatible for platforms without RTTI,
	a set of tests, examples and new manual section would have to be created

	<hr>
	<p>Revised 1 November, 2008
	<p><i>© Copyright <a href="http://www.rrsd.com">Robert Ramey</a> 2002-2008.
	Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
	accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
	</i></p>
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