[Python-Dev] PEP 3144 review.

["Martin v. Löwis"]

>> As a side note, I would be in favor of dropping the concept of a mask
>> from the library, and only support a prefix length.
> 
> -1
> 
>> IPv6 doesn't support masks at all, and even for IPv4, I think there
>> are conventions (if not RFCs) against using them in a way that does
>> not correspond to a prefix length.
> 
> Then the module should only support netmasks of the form 
> (say) '255.255.255.224' (equivalent to "/27"), and reject those 
> like "255.3.255.255". It currently accepts them.
> 
> Many applications still display netmasks in dot-quad form, and I would 
> be terribly annoyed if I had to count the bits myself before passing it 
> to IPv4Address.

I wouldn't ask for that: it should certainly be possible to supply
masks. However, I would want to reject masks that don't correspond to
a prefix, and have only the prefix length in the internal representation.

Regards,
Martin