Because I frequently need lists of vertices and faces in the form of Python code in add-ons that produce parameterized objects, I wrote a simple add-on called DumpMesh that creates those lists (and others) for a selected mesh object and stores the code in Blender’s text editor. Be default it also creates code for another add-on, CreateMesh, that can be used to generate a mesh object based on those lists of vertices etc. so can directly test it.
This is of course an add-on with a very narrow audience but that’s no reason not to share it
More information, including where to download it, in this article.
This is fantastic. Reminds me of nuke, which allows you to copy your node trees and automatically converts them to a text file upon copying them. Allowing you to easily share scripts with others to simply paste back into another nuke instance with very little inconvenience.