as :class:`.TypeDecorator` objects.

dialect on a type where MySQL does not support CAST; MySQL only
supports CAST on a subset of datatypes.   SQLAlchemy has for a long
time just omitted the CAST for unsupported types in the case of
MySQL.  While we don't want to change this now, we emit a warning
to show that it's taken place.   A warning is also emitted when
a CAST is used with an older MySQL version (< 4) that doesn't support
CAST at all, it's skipped in this case as well.
fixes #3237

all cases, so that MySQL 5.6.6 with the
``explicit_defaults_for_timestamp`` flag enabled will
will allow TIMESTAMP to continue to work as expected when
``nullable=False``.  Existing applications are unaffected as
SQLAlchemy has always emitted NULL for a TIMESTAMP column that
is ``nullable=True``.  fixes #3155

levels; :meth:`.Connection.get_isolation_level`,
:attr:`.Connection.default_isolation_level`.
- enhance documentation inter-linkage between new accessors,
existing isolation_level parameters, as well as in
the dialect-level methods which should be fully covered
by Engine/Connection level APIs now.

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

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

sort_tables_and_constraints function.
- The DDL generation system of :meth:`.MetaData.create_all`
and :meth:`.Metadata.drop_all` has been enhanced to in most
cases automatically handle the case of mutually dependent
foreign key constraints; the need for the
:paramref:`.ForeignKeyConstraint.use_alter` flag is greatly
reduced.  The system also works for constraints which aren't given
a name up front; only in the case of DROP is a name required for
at least one of the constraints involved in the cycle.
fixes #3282

return type is not strictly assumed to be boolean; it now
returns a :class:`.Boolean` subclass called :class:`.MatchType`.
The type will still produce boolean behavior when used in Python
expressions, however the dialect can override its behavior at
result time.  In the case of MySQL, while the MATCH operator
is typically used in a boolean context within an expression,
if one actually queries for the value of a match expression, a
floating point value is returned; this value is not compatible
with SQLAlchemy's C-based boolean processor, so MySQL's result-set
behavior now follows that of the :class:`.Float` type.
A new operator object ``notmatch_op`` is also added to better allow
dialects to define the negation of a match operation.
fixes #3263