Prevent deriving types from Measure having to specify DataTypeSerializer about carp.core-kotlin HOT 3 CLOSED

Similarly, all extending types from TaskDescriptor need to specify MeasuresSerializer to be used for the measures property.

@Serializable
data class IndefiniteTask(
    override val name: String,
    @Serializable( with = MeasuresSerializer::class )
    override val measures: List<Measure> ) : TaskDescriptor()

from carp.core-kotlin.

I believe this is only needed for deserialization, thus this is less important for extending types in external libraries outside of our control (serialization will still work correctly).

Concretely, this thus only impacts 'server-side'. Each time we introduce 'default' supported tasks and measures, we need to remember to apply these attributes correctly. In case there is no way to reuse the serializer defined on the base type, we could consider implementing a runtime check which triggers an exception in case the attribute is not defined.

from carp.core-kotlin.

In Kotlin 1.3 the equivalent of this will become a Polymorph attribute which needs to be applied for polymorph serialization to work.

Having looked more into this, I now believe this will most likely remain a requirement. The question then becomes, how can we enforce correct implementations of deriving types. We could check in a static initializers of such types whether the attribute is applied correctly, and throw a suitable runtime error in case it is not present.

from carp.core-kotlin.