[Python-Dev] PEP 3144 review.

[David Moss]

Dave M.

On 27 Sep 2009, at 07:56, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:

>>> 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.
>
+1 on rejection of netmasks without direct CIDR prefix equivalents.  
AFAIK Cisco routers accept them but I don't see how they would be  
useful in practice (unless someone can demonstrate their need for this).

> Regards,
> Martin
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