PEP: XXX
Title: Serialization of Simple Python Types
Version: $Revision: $
Last-Modified: $Date: $
Author: Simon Wittber <simonwittber@gmail.com>
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Python-Version: 2.4
Content-Type: text/plain
Created: 19-Jun-2005
Post-History:

Abstract

    This PEP suggests the addition of a module to the standard library,
    which provides a serialization class for simple Python types.


Copyright

    This document is placed in the public domain.


Motivation

    The standard library currently provides two modules which are used
    for object serialization. Pickle is not secure by its very nature,
    and the marshal module is clearly marked as being not secure in the
    documentation. The marshal module does not guarantee compatibility
    between Python versions. The proposed module will only serialize
    simple built-in Python types, and provide compatibility across
    Python versions.

    See RFE 467384 (on SourceForge) for past discussions on the above
    issues.


Specification

    The proposed module should use the same API as the marshal module.

        dump(value, file)
        #serialize value, and write to open file object
        load(file)
        #read data from file object, unserialize and return an object
        dumps(value)
        #return the string that would be written to the file by dump
        loads(value)
        #unserialize and return object


Reference Implementation

    Please see attached sencode.py


Rationale

    An algorithm using a single encode function, in which an if/elif
    structure is used, rather than a dict lookup by type, proved to
    be slower than the algorithm used in the reference implementation.



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