Pro:
You have total control over it.
Can leverage existing parsing libraries: rfc822, ConfigParser, xml, CSV, MiscUtils.DataTable.
Con:
You have to create the entire infrastucture yourself.
No support for concurrent access unless you provide it.
-- MikeOrr - 31 Dec 2001
I just want to expand on Mike's point of no support for concurrent access unless you provide it.
That item is huge and in a recent project I briefly considered trying this approach just to experience the pros and cons first hand. As I thought about it more it became less attractive.
Web sites are inherently concurrent and the issues around concurrency can be subtle and numerous. Unless your application is exceedingly simple, don't go this route.
-- ChuckEsterbrook - 31 Dec 2001
These same issues of concurency exist for PythonsPickleAndShelveModules -- but are not horribly difficult to avoid, especially when you use a factory. I've written a note at PythonsPickleAndShelveModules about how I approached this problem.
-- IanBicking - 03 Jan 2002