For the interested, the algorithm that is most likely being used is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation_by_squaring
If you scroll down, there is a ruby implementation. Combine this with a little bit of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic and I wrote a small python function that does what the built-in is probably doing. G = long(2333938645766150615511255943169694097469294538730577330470365230748185729160097289200390738424346682521059501689463393405180773510126708477896062227281603) P = long(7897383601534681724700886135766287333879367007236994792380151951185032550914983506148400098806010880449684316518296830583436041101740143835597057941064647) import random a = random.getrandbits(512) #A = (G ** a) % P # G^a mod P print pow(G, a, P) def testpower(x, n, P): result = 1 while n: if n % 2: result = (result * x) % P n = n - 1 x = (x * x) % P n = n / 2 return result print testpower(G, a, P) -Justin -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
