Use serialisation for save_analysis

[nrc]

Currently we use an ad hoc csv format for dumping analysis data (see rustc::middle::save::recorder). It would be better to use libserialize (or serde) for the dumping step so we can easily provide data in different formats.

By default, I think save_analysis should output JSON, since that seems to be the current hotness for this sort of thing.

I expect this to be not too hard, but non-trivial, and possibly a little bit tedious.

[sinistersnare]

cc me

[gamazeps]

Willing to work on this too :)

[gamazeps]

@sinistersnare Wanna split the work ? Or did you cc just in order to see the progress ?

[sinistersnare]

Sure. this could be interesting.

[rolandshoemaker]

Is this still being worked on or abandoned?

[nrc]

@sinistersnare @gamazeps ? (See previous comment)

[sinistersnare]

Oh goodness, I forgot about this :)

I can start work on this next week, but if you want to take this @rolandshoemaker, than feel free. Sorry!

[Potpourri]

I would like to work on this.

[sinistersnare]

Please do, I have no more plans of contributing.

[Potpourri]

@nick29581 Do I need to keep csv support?

[nrc]

@Potpourri tl;dr: no.

What would be ideal would be to have a generic serialisation API which could serialise to JSON, CSV or whatever else. I'm not sure if that is possible or how easy it is (@erickt might be able to advise). I'd be pretty happy with just JSON, as long as it wasn't too hard-wired in. (You could also earn mega-love from me by converting DXR to understand JSON rather than CSV as a follow up, but I'm also happy to do that).

[steveklabnik]

Triage: looks like we're still using the CSV format.