pickle compatibility

[Paul Rubin]

philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk (phil hunt) writes:
> If I pickle a Python data structure into a file, then move that
> file to a different machine (with perhaps a different operating system,
> different CPU, and running a different version of Python), will
> the destination machine be able to unpickle the file correctly?

It's supposed to be able to.  If it can't, it's a bug.

> Does it help if I only use built-in objects?

Take a look at the new (2.2) pickle docs for some updated info.

> Also, is there some serialisation format that Python uses that
> is standardised so it can be read by non-Python programs?

Sure, XML-RPC, XDR, BER/DER, etc.