now be constructed such that the visit methods receive an indication
of the owning expression object, if any.  Any visit method that
accepts keyword arguments (e.g. ``**kw``) will in most cases
receive a keyword argument ``type_expression``, referring to the
expression object that the type is contained within.  For columns
in DDL, the dialect's compiler class may need to alter its
``get_column_specification()`` method to support this as well.
The ``UserDefinedType.get_col_spec()`` method will also receive
``type_expression`` if it provides ``**kw`` in its argument
signature.
fixes #3074

for memoization on a class that uses slots.
- apply many more __slots__.  mem use for nova now at 46% savings

through all possible set values

assume that the empty string, or a set with a single empty string
value, is in fact a set with a single empty string; instead, this
is by default treated as the empty set.  In order to handle persistence
of a :class:`.mysql.SET` that actually wants to include the blank
value ``''`` as a legitimate value, a new bitwise operational mode
is added which is enabled by the
:paramref:`.mysql.SET.retrieve_as_bitwise` flag, which will persist
and retrieve values unambiguously using their bitflag positioning.
Storage and retrieval of unicode values for driver configurations
that aren't converting unicode natively is also repaired.
fixes #3283

ORM functions that are derived as "public factory" symbols, which
should assist with documentation tools being able to report on the
target module.
fixes #3218

that are now affixed to _MapperConfig
- declarative now creates column copies ahead of time
so that they are ready to go for a declared_attr
- overhaul of declared_attr; memoization, cascading modifier
- A relationship set up with :class:`.declared_attr` on
a :class:`.AbstractConcreteBase` base class will now be configured
on the abstract base mapping automatically, in addition to being
set up on descendant concrete classes as usual.
fixes #2670
- The :class:`.declared_attr` construct has newly improved
behaviors and features in conjunction with declarative.  The
decorated function will now have access to the final column
copies present on the local mixin when invoked, and will also
be invoked exactly once for each mapped class, the returned result
being memoized.   A new modifier :attr:`.declared_attr.cascading`
is added as well. fixes #3150
- the original plan for #3150 has been scaled back; by copying
mixin columns up front and memoizing, we don't actually need
the "map properties later" thing.
- full docs + migration notes