Github repository

INTRODUCTION

The idea of opening up my own github repository has been around my head for some years now. I ve been putting it off for a long time, the reason being i ve always had my personal backup of script code and utilities ive developped through the years at home but the fear of several hard disks crashing including my home NAS finally made up my mind and give github a shot.

It's purpose is primarily for personal use, im not too keen on spending time uploading the unit tests or even commenting unless it is fuzzy enough not to understand.

FIRST PROJECT: SERIALIZER

https://github.com/juan-cristobal-quesada/serializer

In python we have several built-in methods to serialize objects: json, pickle, .. etc. The JSON module serializes only basic types and some built-in datastructures whereas Pickle/cPickle attempts to serialize all custom class objects.

There are several further modules implemented in the python repository that intend to solve different issues with serialization. My current implementation relies on cPickle because of it speed but leverages the final serialization object by limiting the type of variables that are serializable. This comes specially handy if you intend to send the serialized object over a network. Fine tuning which objects get serialized and which dont allows more control over the size.

The serializer in this project allows for basic types serialization including basic lists and dicts datastructures which covers pretty much the core data of the objects we needed to send as well as a special class called Serializable intended for any custom class to inherit from in order to be serialized. In the process the path of the module is appended so that it can be correctly reconstructed at the endpoint.

The resulting object is then base 64 encoded so that it an be ascii compliant, for example allowing to be passed to another subprocess as an environment variable.


FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

- extend the base serialization and add a readable format such as json notably for debug purposes.
- add a zip compression functionality
- add an encryption functionality so that the serialized object is protected when traveling through the network.
- add support for more built-in basic types such as OrderedDict and others.
- add unit testing cases to showcase the usage.