[Python-Dev] Pickle alternative in stdlib (Was: On breaking modules into packages)

[Alexander Belopolsky]

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
..
>>> Twisted actually tried to preserve pickle compatibility in the bad old days,
>>> but it was impossible.  Pickles should never really be saved to disk unless
>>> they contain nothing but lists, ints, strings, and dicts.
>
> But *that* set of types can safely be marshalled using the marshal module...

Not if the instances contain reference cycles.