Macaulay2 / Macaulay2/M2

value and toExternalString... deprecated?

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Macaulay2
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Description

Is `toExternalString` deprecated?
`Serialization` package seems to be a newer solution to "pickling"... but it is not mentioned by `help toExternalString`.

It seems that to be able to pickle and unpickle a matrix (with `toExternalString`) one needs to have the ring and its generators as global variables, otherwise...

```
i1 : QQ[x]

o1 = QQ[x]

o1 : PolynomialRing

i2 : toExternalString matrix{{x}}

o2 = map((QQ[x])^1,(QQ[x])^{{-1}},{{x}})

i3 : value oo
currentString:1:1:(3):[1]: error: modules over incompatible rings
currentString:1:1:(3):[1]: --entering debugger (type help to see debugger commands)
currentString:1:1-1:32: --source code:
map((QQ[x])^1,(QQ[x])^{{-1}},{{x}})
```

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Research direction

Start by reproducing the shown `toExternalString` and `value` session, then compare the `toExternalString` help output with the `Serialization` package documentation. No source files or tests are named; done means the deprecation status and the matrix round-trip behavior are clearly resolved or documented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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