[Python-Dev] SSL support in _socket

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "AB" == Anthony Baxter <anthony@ekit-inc.com> writes:

  AB> The whole subject of socket and SSL support came up at a
  AB> lunchtime chat on developers day (and my jetlagged brain has
  AB> totally failed to supply me the names of who I was talking to at
  AB> the time...). Wouldn't it be better to rip the SSL support out
  AB> entirely, and provide a way to hook the transport layer stuff on
  AB> top of the standard socket object?

It is certainly attractive to focus future development on a separate C
extension module.  The current SSL support was included because we
thought it would be nice to allow people to open https URLs.  The code
itself is problematic for many reasons, not least of which is its very
minimal feature set.  But getting the right Python interface for a
large library like OpenSSL is a big task.  I think it's better suite
for 3rd party libraries that the core (and such libraries do exist,
though I've never used them).

Jeremy