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authorAntoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net>2012-05-10 13:38:30 (GMT)
committerAntoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net>2012-05-10 13:38:30 (GMT)
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Some nits in the pickle docs.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/library/pickle.rst')
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/pickle.rst44
1 files changed, 23 insertions, 21 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/pickle.rst b/Doc/library/pickle.rst
index bf0a72e..a1f9af2 100644
--- a/Doc/library/pickle.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/pickle.rst
@@ -85,45 +85,48 @@ Data stream format
------------------
.. index::
- single: XDR
single: External Data Representation
The data format used by :mod:`pickle` is Python-specific. This has the
advantage that there are no restrictions imposed by external standards such as
-XDR (which can't represent pointer sharing); however it means that non-Python
-programs may not be able to reconstruct pickled Python objects.
+JSON or XDR (which can't represent pointer sharing); however it means that
+non-Python programs may not be able to reconstruct pickled Python objects.
+
+By default, the :mod:`pickle` data format uses a relatively compact binary
+representation. If you need optimal size characteristics, you can efficiently
+:doc:`compress <archiving>` pickled data.
-By default, the :mod:`pickle` data format uses a compact binary representation.
The module :mod:`pickletools` contains tools for analyzing data streams
-generated by :mod:`pickle`.
+generated by :mod:`pickle`. :mod:`pickletools` source code has extensive
+comments about opcodes used by pickle protocols.
There are currently 4 different protocols which can be used for pickling.
-* Protocol version 0 is the original human-readable protocol and is
+* Protocol version 0 is the original "human-readable" protocol and is
backwards compatible with earlier versions of Python.
-* Protocol version 1 is the old binary format which is also compatible with
+* Protocol version 1 is an old binary format which is also compatible with
earlier versions of Python.
* Protocol version 2 was introduced in Python 2.3. It provides much more
- efficient pickling of :term:`new-style class`\es.
+ efficient pickling of :term:`new-style class`\es. Refer to :pep:`307` for
+ information about improvements brought by protocol 2.
-* Protocol version 3 was added in Python 3.0. It has explicit support for
- bytes and cannot be unpickled by Python 2.x pickle modules. This is
- the current recommended protocol, use it whenever it is possible.
-
-Refer to :pep:`307` for information about improvements brought by
-protocol 2. See :mod:`pickletools`'s source code for extensive
-comments about opcodes used by pickle protocols.
+* Protocol version 3 was added in Python 3. It has explicit support for
+ :class:`bytes` objects and cannot be unpickled by Python 2.x. This is
+ the default as well as the current recommended protocol; use it whenever
+ possible.
Module Interface
----------------
-To serialize an object hierarchy, you first create a pickler, then you call the
-pickler's :meth:`dump` method. To de-serialize a data stream, you first create
-an unpickler, then you call the unpickler's :meth:`load` method. The
-:mod:`pickle` module provides the following constant:
+To serialize an object hierarchy, you simply call the :func:`dumps` function.
+Similarly, to de-serialize a data stream, you call the :func:`loads` function.
+However, if you want more control over serialization and de-serialization,
+you can create a :class:`Pickler` or an :class:`Unpickler` object, respectively.
+
+The :mod:`pickle` module provides the following constants:
.. data:: HIGHEST_PROTOCOL
@@ -134,8 +137,7 @@ an unpickler, then you call the unpickler's :meth:`load` method. The
.. data:: DEFAULT_PROTOCOL
The default protocol used for pickling. May be less than HIGHEST_PROTOCOL.
- Currently the default protocol is 3; a backward-incompatible protocol
- designed for Python 3.0.
+ Currently the default protocol is 3, a new protocol designed for Python 3.0.
The :mod:`pickle` module provides the following functions to make the pickling