dict->XML->dict? Or, passing small hashes through text?

[Skip Montanaro]

    >> > Check out xmlrpclib ...

    >> ... at first I was turned off because it implements its own little
    >> server, so I'd have to gut mine....

    Andrew> It's possible to use xmlrpclib without running its builtin
    Andrew> server -- e.g.  Twisted's XML-RPC support does this, and it's
    Andrew> not hard.

There's also the SimpleXMLRPCServer module and class which makes it, well,
simple, to implement such beasts.  That might minimize the grief you
experience gutting your existing server.

Skip