- Release date: 2016-08-31

- SHA-256: 535b73efe5546fde9e763c14aeadfc7b58183c0b3cd43c29741025aba6cf6bd3

This release combines a lot of small fixes and improvements. The release is backwards compatible.

- The **parser/deserialization functions have been generalized** to process any contiguous sequence of 1-byte elements (e.g., `char`, `unsigned char`, `uint8_t`). This includes all kind of string representations (string literals, char arrays, `std::string`, `const char*`), contiguous containers (C-style arrays, `std::vector`, `std::array`, `std::valarray`, `std::initializer_list`). User-defined containers providing random-access iterator access via `std::begin` and `std::end` can be used as well. See the documentation ([1](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_ace63ac4eb1dd7251a259d32e397461a3.html#ace63ac4eb1dd7251a259d32e397461a3), [2](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a90f05d55d9d0702c075cd281fd0d85ae.html#a90f05d55d9d0702c075cd281fd0d85ae), [3](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_aeffd70f622f8f2a51fd3d95af64b63a7.html#aeffd70f622f8f2a51fd3d95af64b63a7), [4](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_aa8dca2e91a6301c36890f844e64f0023.html#aa8dca2e91a6301c36890f844e64f0023)) for more information. Note that contiguous storage cannot be checked at compile time; if any of the parse functions are called with a noncompliant container, the behavior is undefined and will most likely yield segmentation violation. The preconditions are enforced by an assertion unless the library is compiled with preprocessor symbol `NDEBUG`.
- As a general remark on **assertions**: The library uses assertions to preclude undefined behavior. A [prominent example](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/289) for this is the `operator[]` for const JSON objects. The behavior of this const version of the operator is undefined if the given key does not exist in the JSON object, because unlike the non-const version, it cannot add a `null` value at the given key. Assertions can be switched of by defining the preprocessor symbol `NDEBUG`. See the [documentation of `assert`](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/error/assert) for more information.
- In the course of cleaning up the parser/deserialization functions, the constructor [`basic_json(std::istream&, const parser_callback_t)`](https://nlohmann.github.io/json/classnlohmann_1_1basic__json_a32350263eb105764844c5a85e156a255.html#a32350263eb105764844c5a85e156a255) has been **deprecated** and will be deleted with the next major release 3.0.0 to unify the interface of the library. Deserialization will be done by stream operators or by calling one of the `parse` functions. That is, calls like `json j(i);` for an input stream `i` need to be replaced by `json j = json::parse(i);`. Compilers will produce a deprecation warning if client code uses this function.
- Minor improvements:
  - Improved the performance of the serialization by avoiding the re-creation of a locale object.
  - Fixed two MSVC warnings. Compiling the test suite with `/Wall` now only warns about non-inlined functions (C4710) and the deprecation of the constructor from input-stream (C4996).
- Some project internals:
  - <img align="right" src="https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/assets/questions_page_badge-17b338c0e8528d695d8676e23f39f17ca2b89bb88176370803ee69aeebcb5be4.png"> The project has qualified for the [Core Infrastructure Initiative Best Practices Badge](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/289). While most requirements where already satisfied, some led to a more explicit documentation of quality-ensuring procedures. For instance, static analysis is now executed with every commit on the build server. Furthermore, the [contribution guidelines document](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/blob/develop/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md) how to communicate security issues privately.
  - The test suite has been overworked and split into several files to allow for faster compilation and analysis. The execute the test suite, simply execute `make check`.
  - The continuous integration with [Travis](https://travis-ci.org/nlohmann/json) was extended with Clang versions 3.6.0 to 3.8.1 and now includes 18 different compiler/OS combinations.
  - An 11-day run of [American fuzzy lop](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/) checked 962 million inputs on the parser and found no issue.