Serialization

Phases of Object Initialization

If restoring from a checkpoint, loadState(ckpt) is called on each SimObject. The default implementation simply calls unserialize() if there is a corresponding checkpoint section, so we get backward compatibility for existing objects. However, objects can override loadState() to get other behaviors, e.g., doing other programmed initializations after unserialize(), or complaining if no checkpoint section is found. (Note that the default warning for a missing checkpoint section is now gone.)

If not restoring from a checkpoint, we call the new initState() method on each SimObject instead. This provides a hook for state initializations that are only required when *not* restoring from a checkpoint.