[Python-Dev] Adding timeout option to httplib...connect()

[skip at pobox.com]

    Guido> I recently needed to access an HTTP URL with a timeout. I ended
    Guido> up monkey-patching httplib.HTTPConnection so that the connect()
    Guido> method has an optional second paramer, timeout, defaulting to
    Guido> None; if not None, a call to settimeout() is added right after
    Guido> successful creation of the socket.

    Guido> Does anybody else think this is a good idea?

In principle it's probably a fine idea.  We should consider if it's possible
to develop a uniform approach to timeouts for all the libraries that use
sockets though.  Otherwise you run the risk of doing it in different ways
for different libraries and having to make a (small, but annoying) semantic
leap when going from, say, httplib to smtpllib or ftplib.

Skip