Boost Serialization | GameDev.net

I have decided to try learning the boost serialization library to try and make writing code to save and load game state to disk a lot faster. Maybe if I get more productive I might actually finish a game one day. After far too much time I finally managed to figure out how to compile the boost serialization lib. I am using gcc. Then I tried to compile a very simple example:


#include <fstream>
#include <boost/archive/text_iarchive.hpp>
#include <boost/archive/text_oarchive.hpp>
#include <boost/serialization/utility.hpp>

class Test
{
  private:
  friend class boost::serialization::access;             
  int myint;
  
  template<class Archive>
  void serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version) const
  {
    ar & myint;
  }
  public:
  Test(int myint) : myint(myint) { }
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    Test tt(5);
    std::ofstream ofs("filename.txt");
    {
      boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(ofs);
      oa << tt;
    }
    system("PAUSE");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

But I run into the following compile error: incomplete type boost::STATIC_ASSERTION_FAILURE' does not have member value' This is caused by the following line in oserializer.hpp which gets called as part of the << operator being invoked above: BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(check_tracking::value); After a few wasted hours of trying to figure out what was going on I finally saw the comment just before that line in oserializer.hpp. It reads: // if your program traps here, it indicates taht your doing one of the following: // a) serializing an object of a type marked "track_never" through a pointer. // b) saving an non-const object of a type not markd "track_never) // Either of these conditions may be an indicator of an error usage of the // serialization library and should be double checked. See documentation on // object tracking. ***************** At this point I have wasted another 2 hours thinking that the above comment did not apply because i was serializing an int. I tried making the member int const and all kinds of stupid things. It was only in copy pasting the above comment into this post that I realized I am serializing a Test object, not an int. By changing the line of my code: test tt(5); to const test tt(5); it compiles and works. So do I really need to post this? Probably not, but like hell im going to delete everything I've typed so far. Fortunately I new questions. The serialization library is protecting me from some danger by forcing me to only use const objects. But I don't like having to declare all my objects as const. Obviously const_casting is just going to cancel out the protection and I doubt that is a good idea as I have very little idea what it is protecting me from. Is it normal practice to declare objects as const when using the boost serialization library, or dao people typically const_cast and turn off object tracking here and there? In other words do I have to actually understand the purpose of object tracking in order to use the serialization library? Thanks

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