[Python-ideas] Password masking for getpass.getpass

[Paul Moore]

On 13 January 2016 at 10:19, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> That said, though, I honestly don't think there's much value in seeing
> the length of a password by the number of asterisks. Have you ever
> looked at them and realized that you missed out a letter? But again,
> they're what people expect...

Personally, I frequently look at the line of asterisks and think "that
doesn't look right" - it helps me catch typos. Also, doing things like
deleting everything but the first N characters lets me retype from a
"known good" point. I tend to get uncomfortable when I get no feedback
at all, as is typical on Unix systems.

But yes, it's about expectations, and it depends what type of system
you typically work with. Although many, many people are used to seeing
feedback asterisks or similar, as that's the norm on Windows and in
many (most?) web applications.

Paul