Pekel is a protocol for encoding simple objects like strings, integers, and tuples in an efficient binary format. The protocol is similar to Python's pickle. Pekel has the following design goals:

1. Consistency: If you encode an object, you should get the same
   serialized string out, regardless of what language and language version
   you are using.
2. Portability: Pekel should work reliably and consistently across all
   supported languages and language versions.
3. Efficiency: It should be fast to serialize and deserialize data, and
   serialized data should be space-efficient.

Pekel is the Dutch word for "pickle", evoking the protocol's similarity to the Python pickle format.

The Python interface is similar to that of the pickle module and exposes dumps, dump, loads, and load functions.

The following data types are supported:

1. Binary strings
2. Text strings
3. Arbitrary-sized, signed integers
4. Booleans
5. None/NULL
6. Heterogeneous tuples of any other types
7. Homogeneous lists of any other types

Other data types, including sets, dictionaries, and floats, may be added later.

Pekel is mostly a subset of pickle protocol 2.

Run python3.6 -m tox in a checkout of this repo.