Persistence

[Rajarshi Guha]

On Thursday 11 April 2002 13:58 in comp.lang.python Riccardo de Maria wrote:

> Is there a way to save in a file the status, objects, functions of
> interpreter
> in order to restore it after the interpreter has been closed?
> 
> If it is possible, one can work on a project stop and then continue
> later adding functions, objects and so on.

I have a related question - does the OP refer to object persistence or 
object serialization? Is there a difference between the two?

I looked at the shelve and pickle modules - the former uses a dbm database 
whereas the latter just dumps an ASCII representation of the object. The 
fact that shelve uses a dbm indicates that it should be more efficient. Is 
this true? When would I choose one over the other?

-- 
Rajarshi Guha
rajarshi at presidency.com