"Fredrik Lundh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > "I'll only work on stuff if I'm sure it's going right into the core" > isn't exactly a great way to develop good Python software. I > recommend the "would anyone except me have any use for this?" > approach.
1. Crypto is an important "battery" for many security applications. As a crypto activist I like to spread crypto, and I therefore think it would be useful if crypto were in the core. That is the reason I was willing to do the work of writing a suitable module. To have it go into the core and further my goal of spreading crypto. That's as good a reason as any to write a crypto module. 2. "Would anyone except me have any use for this?" shows a lack of understanding of how Python is used. Some users (call them "application users" or AU's) use Python to run Python applications for whatever purpose. Some other users (call them "developers") use Python to develop applications that are intended to be run by AU's. Now we're talking about an extension module written in C. There is no way to write AES for Python any other way and still have reasonable perfomance. Modules written in C and distributed separately from the core are a pain in the neck to download and install. You need compilers, which not everyone has access to. AU's often use Windows, which doesn't come with any compilers, so many AU's have no compilers. Developers generally have access to compilers for the platforms they develop on, but usually won't have compilers for every target platform that every AU in their audience might want to run their app on. Even AU's with compilers need to be able to install extension modules before they can run them, which isn't always possible, for example if they're using Python at a web hosting service. What I'm getting at here is that C modules are considerably more useful to AU's if they're in the core than if they're outside it, and the effect is even larger for developers. For developers, extension modules are practically useless unless they're in the core. Depending on extension modules that have to be installed by the AU severely limits the audience for the developer's app. The module we're discussing was intended for developers. "Would anyone except me have any use for this, [even if it doesn't go in the core]?" is a bizarre question. The whole purpose of the module was to let developers ship Python crypto apps that don't making the AU load external C modules. If it's not in the core, it doesn't meet its usefulness criterion. Your proposed question amounts to asking "is this worth doing even if its usefulness is severely limited?". I aleady asked myself that question and the answer was no. I was only interested in the higher-usefulness case, which means putting the module in the core. I don't see anything unreasonable about that. I can only work on a limited number of things, so I pick the most useful ones. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list