[PYTHON-CRYPTO] Comments on PEP 247 (Hashing)

[Itamar S.-T.]

--- Rich Salz <rsalz at ZOLERA.COM> wrote:

> 1.  Why is there a new method; why isn't the classic
> constructor
>     good enough?  The PEP needs to justify this.

That way you don't have to worry about what the
constructor is called.

> 2.  I'm concerned that the new([key],[string])
> calling sequence
>     makes ambiguity possible, mistaking a string for
> a key if
>     not realizing I'm using HMAC, e.g.  I suggest
> removing the initial
>     string.

Maybe instead:
new(str="")
new(key, str="")

Having the initial string is useful:
digest = sha.new(str).digest()


=====
Itamar Shtull-Trauring, itamar(at)shtull-trauring.org

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