s11n.net news

1.3.0 release

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:00:00 GMT

While i've had the 1.3.0 source tree ready to release for the better part of a year, i have simply been too lazy to deal with it. Finally, 1.3.0 is out. Per long-standing convention, releases with an odd minor number (the "3" in 1.3.x) are development/unstable releases. Their APIs are subject to change at any given time, though historically speaking that doesn't happen often.

The only notably significant change in this version is the ability to handle URLs as sources and targets for serialization. How this is internally handled is likely change significantly, but some proof-of-concept code implements de/serialization over ssh connections, deserialization over http/ftp, and serialization over mailto://user@domain URLs. Also, there's a new serializer which writes out JavaScript code (it can only serialize, not deserialize).

It's available on the s11n.net downloads page or via SourceForge.

JSON-like serializer

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 03:54:51 GMT

While i wrote this code a year or so ago, i never included it into the source tree because i considered it to be too esoteric. Now, with all of the recent revival of JavaScript as a driving force behind Web 2.0, and JSON as a data interchange format, i've added the js_serializer to the 1.3.x source tree. It serializes C++ objects to a JSON-like grammar, but it is not 100% JSON compatible in that it uses anonymous functions to generate some values instead of using hard-coded values. That means that the generated code is trivial to use from JavaScript (simply eval() it), but not strictly compatible with JSON parsers written in non-JavaScript languages. This serializer does not know how to DEserialize - it is write-only.

If anyone is seriously interested in using this serializer along with libs11n 1.2.x, please get in touch (http://s11n.net/home/stephan/) and i will port it into that tree, otherwise i will not bother.

In theory the generated JavaScript data can be used with any JavaScript engine, in any application, and does not use any functions which rely on a web browser. e.g., it can be used in C/C++ projects based on the SpiderMonkey or Rhino JS engines.

okay, okay, we're switching to subversion...

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:29:16 GMT

After trying out subversion on a few other project trees, i am finally convinced that it is indeed an improvement over CVS. The inability to host multiple, truly independent repositories inside one SVN root still bugs me, but i'll get over it. e.g., it is possible, with one svn command, to check out the whole svn root and all repos under it. i don't like that because s11n is made up of several quasi-independent source trees. Anyway...

The 1.3 (head/development) branch has been imported into subversion (how the hell did it get to be 10MB big?), and all future development will take place there, as opposed to CVS. The 1.2 (stable) branch will stay in CVS, as no more than one more release of 1.2.x is expected. i did not bother to convert the older CVS tree to SVN format, so the source code history is lost (well, it's still in CVS). No big deal.

1.3 can be checked out with:

svn co https://s11n.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/s11n/trunk s11n

The tree will be undergoing significant build-related changes for the next few days (or whenever i get around to doing it), as i will be replacing the current build tools with the newest version of those tools, (toc.sf.net).

i still haven't checked my email recently (well, not since February or March), but i can be reached via the email address listed at www.wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/.

Features for 1.4???

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:31:33 GMT

If you've got ideas for features for libs11n version 1.4, please start sending them in. Keep in mind that features must have something to do with serialization and they must not require external libraries other than the STL. Optional features requiring 3rd-party libraries are sometimes accepted into the tree if they are not too code-intrusive (like the gzip/bzip2 and plugins support) and if the underlying libraries are very common.

At the moment, the only significant new feature in the 1.3 (development) tree is the ability to use URLs has in/output files and assign handlers to each URL scheme (e.g., http:// or ssh://). It allows some pretty cool new features, like serializing directly to email or to/from another computer over ssh or ftp. i'm not 100% happy with the current model, though, so it will likely be reworked significantly before 1.4 sees the light of day.

i'm baaaaAAAAAaaaack....

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:10:46 GMT

After a several-month hiatus due to an annoying outbreak of cancer, i am slowly getting back into hacking on s11n and SpiderApe. i released s11n 1.2.5 last week and already have 1.2.6 ready, which fixes some newly-uncovered bugs which could theoretically have shown up in some unusual cases. v1.2.6 also adds a nifty varargs ctor for s11n::s11n_exception (which, however nifty it is, may require a minor but annoying code change in client code which throws s11n_exceptions).

i still can't make any guarantees regarding answering emails with questions about s11n, due to ongoing cancer recovery. However, if i *see* any mails i will answer them. That said i sometimes don't check mail for weeks at a time and often lose mails amongst spam filters and whatnot. Please feel free to bug me repeatedly if i don't answer your s11n questions/comments.

Looking for co-maintainer(s)

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 09:26:58 GMT

Two weeks ago i was diagnosed with cancer in my left tonsil. While surgery appears to have removed the disease, i will be going through radiotherapy and probably a number of other treatments. This means that for the next couple of months, i will be spending little, if any, time working on this project.

The second thought which went through my head when i was told about the cancer was, "i need to find someone to take over, or help maintain, my open source projects." If you think you might be interested in such a role, then read on...

Applicants need not be libs11n professionals, but must be very well-versed in C++ and should have prior experience on open source projects. Also keep in mind that the primary development platform is Linux, which means that experience with some sort of modern Unix-like OS is a must (Linux, BSD, Mac OS/X, etc).

i will ask that all genuinely interested persons please email me directly. As i am quite swamped with doctor's appointments and such, it make take me some time to get back to you. (If you don't hear back from me within a few days, please feel free to ping me again.) My email address can be found on my personal home page: http://s11n.net/home/stephan/

Thank You :)

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 08:12:09 GMT

The response to the request for help in getting a Windows DLL working has been much larger than anticipated. While we haven't got the DLL doing "what it should", i would like to thank those who have contacted me about helping: "Olga", Torin Ford, and Reza Jahanbakhshi.

Gawd bless Open Source...

libs11n package for Kubuntu linux

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:52:01 GMT

Today we've built Debian packages for Kubuntu Linux. They might also work on Ubuntu and other Debian-based packages, but this is untested. The package does not depend on any external packages, and optional features (like gzip/bzip2 and libexpat support) are disabled. The package is available on the download page: http://s11n.net/download/

Help wanted: assistance with Win32 platforms

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:23:00 GMT

The s11n project is looking for help getting libs11n working as a shared library (DLL) on Win32 platforms. We have the code building, and it works when linked directly in with an application, but it isn't working as a DLL due to missing exports. If you're experienced with Win32 DLLs, especially if you're experienced with getting Unix-based shared objects working under Win32, please get in touch (email: stephan at s11n net). We are interested in support any given Win32 toolset, such as MSVC, MinGW, and Cygwin.

libs11n Porting Guide

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:30:19 GMT

Work has begun on a manual for porting libs11n to arbitrary platforms. It's brand new and probably far from complete, but it may be of assistance to anyone out there who wants to build libs11n on non-GNU/Linux systems or wants to copy libs11n directly into their own source tree. It's available here: http://s11n.net/download/#porting_guide

Windows support coming soon...

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:46:07 GMT

i have accepted a job at a company where i will be developing software solely under Windows. Part of the deal is that i’ve got to have a PC running Windows, because the work is 100% from home (which is really cool). Since i’ll have a Windows PC with development tools (namely MS Visual Studio) i’ll be able to personally support the Windows port of libs11n. It’ll probably be another month or two before i release a port, but it is now officially on the to-do list. If time/energy permits, i will also try to support a Cygwin release.

:)

The company, by the way, is http://www.navigating.de.

new sqlite3 wrapper

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:51:58 GMT

i've hijacked yet another mini-project: sqlite3x is a C++ wrapper for sqlite3 databases, written by Cory Nelson and hacked by yours truly. It's easy to use, released under a zlib-like license, and is the best-designed sqlite3 C++ wrapper i've seen so far. See the downloads page for a copy. This wrapper will almost certainly be used in any updates to the sqlite3_serializer.

s11n 1.2.4 released

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:04:25 GMT

1.2.4 is a minor cleanup of 1.2.3, mainly fixing a couple small build problems and introducing no significant changes. If you have 1.2.3 and it works for you, there is no need to upgrade. Users of 1.2.0 - 1.2.2 are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

sqlite3_serializer bugfix release

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:53:36 GMT

A new release of sqlite3_serializer was just made. This fixes the horrible "extra root node" bug, in which the root node was embedded in a copy of itself during deserialization. Download at the usual place: http://s11n.net/download/.

Serialization over ssh/http/ftp

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:25:11 GMT

The 1.3 tree has experimental support for de/serializing over ssh, and for deserializing over ftp/http. This support works using external applications, so we can map existing applications to arbitrary protocols. These features are implemented on top of the pstreams library, but the underlying URL support is independent of any particular stream provider.

s11n in the press

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:56:35 GMT

The 1/2006 editions of Software Developer's Journal (Polish Edition) and "Programmieren unter Linux" (German and Polish editions, http://www.proglinux.de/) contain my first-ever professionally-published article - an introduction to using libs11n. The publisher sent me a hard-copy of the Polish version (which i can't read, but it is still cool) and i found the German edition today in a local train station. If anyone happens to find a copy in other languages, i would be thrilled to hear about it.

1.2.3 released

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 19:29:35 GMT

Thanks to a bug report from Rattlemouse, this release fixes another memory leak which was introduced in 1.2.1 (it is a mirror image of the leak fixed in 1.2.2 - fixed in an overload of the same function). It also fixes a horrible propert-name-mangling bug in the wesnoth_serializer. We've started adding unit tests to the tree, too (see src/unit). The files are available at the usual place.

1.2.2 bugfix release

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:46:09 GMT

1.2.2 is released today to fix a memory leak introduced during refectoring. The leak happens on every file/stream load, and any users of 1.2.1 should upgrade. Sorry about that :/.

1.2.1 released

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 13:17:21 GMT

s11n 1.2.1 has been released. It is a minor update to 1.2.0 to accommodate the development of the sqlite3_serializer. It includes only some minor refactorings over 1.2.0. The manual, on the other hand, underwant a complete facelift. Pete Harlow contributed a port of the manual to OpenDocument format, and that is now the master format. The whole manual has been touched up to take advantage of features which Lyx (the previous format) wouldn't allow for.

sqlite3 add-on

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:58:35 GMT

A new sqlite3-based add-on provides serialization to and from databases. Read all about it on the sqlite3_serializer page.

1.2.0 released

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 18:03:35 GMT

i am quite happy with the results of last summer's coding sessions, and am happy to announce the release of s11n 1.2.0 :).

It contains only trivial changes since 1.1.3, mostly documentation updates, and is now considered the official "stable" branch of the project. There are no immediate plans for starting a 1.3-dev branch, but the time will surely come...

Many thanks to those of you who fed back over the 1.1 development series. It is mainly through your feedback that new features, refinements, and bugfixes find their way in to this project.

1.2.0 release plan

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 17:27:21 GMT

The plan is to release 1.2 in the next 60 days. Depending on what the Christmas holiday plans turn out looking like, it may be released on 1st of January, as 1.0 was, or it may come a week or two earlier.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a Win32 port of 1.1.3+, and are looking for someone who can help us do that. Based on the 1.1.2 Win32 port, i would say it requires under 2 hours of work, mainly setting up a project file with the proper options, and should require no (or very few) code changes. Any volunteers, please get in touch and i'll be happy to walk you through the process.

Software Developer's Journal

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 02:58:22 GMT

In a very surprising turn of events, i have been approached by the Software Developer's Journal (http://www.sdjournal.org) regarding writing an article about s11n for their "Library of the Month" column. Release dates as soon as i know them... :)

1.1.3 released!

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 07:48:48 GMT

After 3 months of intense coding sessions, 1.1.3 has been released. This is a "must-upgrade", as it corrects several potential leak cases in exception/error cases. It also adds several new features, like functor equivalents of the existing de/ser algos, to aid in functional composition. In some cases, we can now build de/ser algos using functors, instead of having to register our types. The 1.1.3 changelog has the single longest list of changes of any s11n release ever made.

Hello, world!

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 20:02:50 GMT

i was knocked offline for nearly 3 months, first by a broken router and then by a new ISP who took 6 weeks to get me online...
s11n 1.1.3 will be coming up soon, and has a HUGE list of improvements and changes. Stay tuned over the coming weeks, as i finally get caught up in my online life...

New Paper: Generic Cleanup in C++

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 07:31:45 GMT

While repairing the exception safety support, i wrote a short article about how to accomplish this generically for arbitrary code trees. The paper is available on the papers page.

Major improvements in error/exception safety

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:12:17 GMT

The changelog for 1.1.3 is at least as long as 1.1.0's was. The exceptions support has been gutted and rewritten, and we can now provide several exception guarantees which simply weren't possible before. For example, lists and maps now have a guaranteed state if deserialization fails (they are left unmodified). The library "should" now deal gracefully with all client-side exceptions which pass through it, and can now properly clean up after itself after a failed deserialization. Clients using containers which hold pointers should definitely upgrade, as older versions essentially guaranty a leak in some cases where deserialization involving such an object fails (this wasn't realized until yesterday morning).

Site re-orgs

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 21:59:12 GMT

The web site will be undergoing a number of re-orgs over the next week or so. Please report any broken links or pages.

First-ever Win32 release of s11n!

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 22:10:00 GMT

Thanks to the efforts of Ashran, we have the first-ever Win32 release of s11n. This is essentially the 1.1.2 release, with only incidental changes from the 1.1.2 release made for Unix a few days ago. Many thanks to Ashran, of hackersquest.org fame, for his work on this port!

1.1.2 released

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:36:11 GMT

The list of significant changes includes:
- Compile error fixed when promoting chars to first-class Serializables.
- Several API change in s11nlite::client_api<>.
- Clients can now replace the internals of s11nlite with their own back-end, such that all s11nlite clients can get access to client-extended client_api implementations while still using the plain old s11nlite API. This will allow, e.g., adding network support to s11nlite without having to recompile any s11nlite clients.
- Several deprecated functions were removed.
- Plugins (DLL) support has come back, but is optional and uses a different back-end than before.
- Several updates to the manual. It's now a whopping 91 PDF pages.
As always: http://s11n.net/download/

Major milestone reached: 1.1.2 built under WinXP

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 23:21:03 GMT

My friend Ashran sat down with me tonight and got s11n running under Windows XP. The port was remarkably painless, and even the flex-generated code built with only minor (automatable) changes. Building under Windows is not trivial at the moment, because some source files must be created under Unix and copied to the Windows box, but ready-to-build and precompiled variants of the Windows tree will soon be published on the web site. Many, many thanks to Ashran for his help in making this long-standing dream a reality! Rather surprisingly, some 2/3rds of the web traffic that goes through s11n.net is from Windows clients, and it is hoped that we can finally satisfy their serialization needs.

1.1.1-dev released

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 14:55:54 GMT

1.1.1 fixes an endless loop which showed up during some entity translation operations. Fixed a bug in the factory layer which caused factories from different compilation units to refer to different factory maps. It also re-introduces s11nconvert and one sample client application. As always: http://s11n.net/download/#s11n

1.1.0-dev released

Sun, 29 May 2005 15:57:37 GMT

1.1 is the "unstable/development" branch which will (presumably) someday evolve to 1.2 "stable." This initial 1.1 release already has in place most of the planned changes for 1.2, but it will be left in a development state for at least another few months in order to experiment with some ideas which might or might not turn out to be useful. The changelog overview can be found via the s11n change log RSS feed.

Unrelated: added the RSS feeds page.

s11n.net gets RSS feeds

Fri, 27 May 2005 12:54:02 GMT

Now that i've got fast online access at home i feel compelled to add this feature to the site. The currently available feeds (RSS 2.0) include:
- News: this feed replaces the older news pages.
- Changes: similar to the ChangeLog distributed with the source tree, but updated as changes are committed.
- Contributors: the list of contributors to this project.
Many thanks to the Magpie Project for the RSS reader code and to Software Garden for their great ListGarden RSS writer.

s11n 1.1 release coming up in next few weeks

Thu, 26 May 2005 12:09:55 GMT

After several months of having no net access at home, i've dumped the 1.1 sources into CVS and will be releasing a tarball sometime in the next few weeks.