comms

import cPickle
import socket
import struct

marshall = cPickle.dumps
unmarshall = cPickle.loads

def send(sock, *args):
    buff = marshall(args)
    value = socket.htonl(len(buff))
    size = struct.pack("L",value)
    sock.send(size)
    sock.send(buff)


def receive(sock):
    size = struct.calcsize("L")
    size = sock.recv(size)
    try:
        size = socket.ntohl(struct.unpack("L", size)[0])
    except struct.error, e:
        return ''

    buff = ""

    while len(buff) < size:
        buff = sock.recv(size - len(buff))

    return unmarshall(buff)[0]