Pure Python Salsa20 Stream Cipher Implementation

[Aahz]

In article <mailman.578.1202619043.9267.python-list at python.org>,
Gabriel Genellina <gagsl-py2 at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
>En Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:29:58 -0200, Aahz <aahz at pythoncraft.com> escribió:
>> In article <mailman.546.1202530094.9267.python-list at python.org>,
>> Gabriel Genellina <gagsl-py2 at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
>>> En Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:34:30 -0200, <betabrain.honshu at gmail.com>  
>>> escribió:
>>>> On 8 Feb., 17:18, Paul Rubin <http://phr...@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't understand why a pure python version of salsa20 would be
>>>>> interesting.  Is there some application that uses salsa20, that's
>>>>> worth being able to interoperate with in pure python?
>>>>
>>>> The reason for a pure python is that it would be independent from the
>>>> platform. A C implementation is faster, but you need to compile it for
>>>> every platform. A python implementation doesn't have that problem and
>>>> could be used to fall back upon.
>>>
>>> On most platforms -with a notable exception- there is a C compiler
>>> available as a standard tool, which is used to compile Python itself.
>>> distutils can easily compile and install C extensions itself, so most of
>>> the time "python setup.py install" is the only thing users have to
>>> execute, exactly the same as if the package were pure Python. With
>>> setuptools, things may be even easier.
>>
>> What about Jython, PyPy, and IronPython?
>
>What about them?
>Do you mean that there should be a Python implementation for each and  
>every imaginable module over there, so it can be used with all of those  
>Python variants? Restricted of course to their minimum common feature set?

<shrug>  Is there some reason you're using exaggerated language?  My only
point is that simply saying "C compiler!  C compiler!" ignores the fact
that Python itself is multi-platform (and makes you look foolish);
whether any given module should be written in pure Python needs to be
decided on a case-by-case basis.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of     
indirection."  --Butler Lampson