[Python-Dev] PEP 3144 review.

[Paul Moore]

2009/9/16 Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>:
> I've been skimming emails in this thread, since most of them go over my
> head and I have no current need for an ipaddress module.

Same here.

> As an outsider to this argument, and judging from the lack of agreement
> here, it seems to me that some (many? most?) developers who have need
> of ipaddress functions are a little unclear about the difference, or
> lack thereof, between addresses and networks. Is it our aim to pander
> to such confusion, and have a module which will Just Work for such
> users, even at the risk of sometimes accepting invalid input. Or is it
> to have a module which is strict and forces the user to Do The Right
> Thing, even at the cost of being less easy to use?
>
> For what it's worth, it seems to me that it would be better to have a
> strict module in the standard lib, and leave the DWIM code to third
> parties.

As a non-expert, I find the confusion between network, address,
address with mask, etc to be extremely unhelpful. I haven't looked to
confirm if it's a confusion that only exists in the discussion, or if
it's in the code as well. However, from my POV, I'd rather have a
module that made the concepts clear and unambiguous, effectively
educating me in the details of correct usage while I used it, rather
than one that catered to my muddled thinking and allowed me to remain
confused.

Of course, the discussion seems to imply that even the experts have a
confused view, so maybe I'm being too ambitious here :-)

Paul.