rotor replacement

[Paul Rubin]

"Fredrik Lundh" <fredrik at pythonware.com> 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.