This function (+ its counterpart `_loads_generations`) rely on
    the dumps/loads pair with Reviver, so are able to deal
    with all subclasses of Generation.
    Each item in the list can be `dumps`ed to a string,
    then we make the whole list of strings into a json-dumped.
    """
    return json.dumps([dumps(_item) for _item in generations])
def _loads_generations(generations_str: str) -> Union[RETURN_VAL_TYPE, None]:
    """
    Deserialization of a string into a generic RETURN_VAL_TYPE
    (i.e. a sequence of `Generation`).
    See `_dumps_generations`, the inverse of this function.
    Args:
        generations_str (str): A string representing a list of generations.
    Compatible with the legacy cache-blob format
    Does not raise exceptions for malformed entries, just logs a warning
    and returns none: the caller should be prepared for such a cache miss.
    Returns:
        RETURN_VAL_TYPE: A list of generations.
    """
    try:
        generations = [loads(_item_str) for _item_str in json.loads(generations_str)]
        return generations
    except (json.JSONDecodeError, TypeError):
        # deferring the (soft) handling to after the legacy-format attempt
        pass
    try:
        gen_dicts = json.loads(generations_str)
        # not relying on `_load_generations_from_json` (which could disappear):
        generations = [Generation(**generation_dict) for generation_dict in gen_dicts]
        logger.warning(
            f"Legacy 'Generation' cached blob encountered: '{generations_str}'"
        )
        return generations
    except (json.JSONDecodeError, TypeError):
        logger.warning(