A friend at work who is new to Python wondered why this didn't work with pickle: class Outer: Class Inner: ... def __init__(self): self.i = Outer.Inner() I explained:

http://docs.python.org/library/pickle.html#what-can-be-pickled-and-unpickled

From that:

# functions defined at the top level of a module # built-in functions defined at the top level of a module # classes that are defined at the top level of a module

I've never questions this, but I wonder, is this a fundamental restriction or could it be overcome with a modest amount of work? Just curious... Skip