--- queues.py	Tue Mar 02 20:56:41 2010
+++ queues_pickled.py	Tue Mar 02 20:56:31 2010
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import atexit
 import weakref
 
+from cPickle import dumps, HIGHEST_PROTOCOL
 from Queue import Empty, Full
 import _multiprocessing
 from multiprocessing import Pipe
@@ -29,10 +30,11 @@
 
 class Queue(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, maxsize=0):
+    def __init__(self, maxsize=0, bufferPickled=False):
         if maxsize <= 0:
             maxsize = _multiprocessing.SemLock.SEM_VALUE_MAX
         self._maxsize = maxsize
+        self._bufferPickled = bufferPickled
         self._reader, self._writer = Pipe(duplex=False)
         self._rlock = Lock()
         self._opid = os.getpid()
@@ -49,11 +51,11 @@
 
     def __getstate__(self):
         assert_spawning(self)
-        return (self._maxsize, self._reader, self._writer,
-                self._rlock, self._wlock, self._sem, self._opid)
+        return (self._maxsize, self._bufferPickled, self._reader,
+                self._writer, self._rlock, self._wlock, self._sem, self._opid)
 
     def __setstate__(self, state):
-        (self._maxsize, self._reader, self._writer,
+        (self._maxsize, self._bufferPickled, self._reader, self._writer,
          self._rlock, self._wlock, self._sem, self._opid) = state
         self._after_fork()
 
@@ -66,9 +68,16 @@
         self._joincancelled = False
         self._closed = False
         self._close = None
-        self._send = self._writer.send
         self._recv = self._reader.recv
         self._poll = self._reader.poll
+        if self._bufferPickled:
+            def buffer_append(obj):
+               self._buffer.append(dumps(obj, HIGHEST_PROTOCOL))
+            self._buffer_append = buffer_append
+            self._send = self._writer.send_bytes
+        else:
+            self._buffer_append = self._buffer.append
+            self._send = self._writer.send
 
     def put(self, obj, block=True, timeout=None):
         assert not self._closed
@@ -79,7 +88,7 @@
         try:
             if self._thread is None:
                 self._start_thread()
-            self._buffer.append(obj)
+            self._buffer_append(obj)
             self._notempty.notify()
         finally:
             self._notempty.release()