Tech Update - BinaryFormatter Deprecated

[Raven0282]

BinaryFormatter has been deprecated in newer versions of .NET Framework due to security concerns.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/compatibility/serialization/5.0/binaryformatter-serialization-obsolete

Recommend updating newer code to use MessagePack for binary serialization. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/binaryformatter-migration-guide/migrate-to-messagepack

A "conversion helper" will be needed to upgrade the existing Library Files to use MessagePack.

[Raven0282]

Updating to MessagePack forces the new binary format to be more "organized" (adding keys to elements, etc.). However, Bitmaps/PNGs stored on the library files are also larger. This means the program loses the file size advantage that the old BinaryFormatter provided. Making the library files into XML or JSON are also going to be larger formats. Therefor the format for Library files should remain as Binary. One way to mitigate the file size might be to convert the PNG (lossless) files stored in the libraries to a JPG (lossy) format. Will continue to investigate.

In any case, implementing the new MessagePack component will require the current library files to be converted to a new binary format. This will make the new library files incompatible with the older versions of Masterplan. This might call for a separate converter UI, but it will only work up to .NET 8. The old BinaryFormatter is completely deprecated in .NET 9 and beyond. Code with the old BinaryFormatter won't compile in .NET 9 and beyond.

[Raven0282]

Work continues with Masterplan 13.0.2 (M13) as the first .NET 8 compatible version that bridges old BinaryFormatter files and new MessagePack files. M13 is able to convert the original .library & .masterplan files from a BinaryFormatter implementation to a MessagePack implementation with no loss of data. Testing is underway to complete this transition.