b2a_hex (data) or hexlify (data) funtionality in V1.5.2

[Jens Arnfelt]

Hi All!

I have joyfully seen in the documentation for Python V2.0 that the below
functions is added in binascii module..

----------- snip ---------
b2a_hex (data)
hexlify (data)
    Return the hexadecimal representation of the binary data. Every byte
of data is
    converted into the corresponding 2-digit hex representation. The
    resulting string is therefore twice as long as the length of data.
------------ snip --------

Is there any way I can make, export, simulate, make or .. this function
in Python 1.5.2.
Unfortunately I'm not in a position to upgrade Python to V2.0 and I need
the above functionality to be
as fast as possible since this is where 90% of my CPU time is spent in
my application.

Second questions. Is there any where i can find some examples on how to
program threads and how
to send data between different threads in Python.

Yours Truly
Jens Arnfelt