quick test of msgpack vs. json encoding

test.py

import os
import sys
import datetime

import json
import umsgpack

def time(what, fn):
    start = datetime.datetime.now()
    fn()
    end = datetime.datetime.now()
    print what + " took " + str(end - start)

paths = sys.argv[1:]
data = []

print "... loading from disk"
for path in paths:
    with open(path) as f:
        data.append(json.load(f))

print "... timing json encoding of " + str(len(data)) + " files"
def json_encoding():
    for d in data:
        json.dumps(d)
time("json encoding", json_encoding)

end = datetime.datetime.now()

print "... timing msgpack encoding of " + str(len(data)) + " files"
def msgpack_encoding():
    for d in data:
        umsgpack.packb(d)
time("msgpack encoding", msgpack_encoding)

At least the Python implementations encoding speed doesn't seem promising:

... loading from disk
... timing json encoding of 1385 files
json encoding took 0:00:02.195731
... timing msgpack encoding of 1385 files
msgpack encoding took 0:00:33.083538