[Python-Dev] Fwd: PEP 3144 review.

[Antoine Pitrou]

DrKJam <drkjam <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> BTW, has anyone considered use of the term *CIDR to refer to an address + mask
object?

This sounds too obscure for a non-specialist.

> Obviously we'd still have the issue of what to do with the host bits to the
right of the supplied mask (keep or discard). This is not a clear cut choice of
one or the other as it is entirely based on context. For configuring routes, you
would likely always want to discard these bits (or at least Cisco does when
adding routes). For configuring a network interface you would most certainly
want to keep them!

When configuring a network interface you are not specifying a network, you are
specifying two things:
- a host address to which the interface is bound (all bits significant)
- a network to which the interface is connected (lower bits non-significant)

As someone pointed out, the fact that you are specifying a single string like
"10.0.1.7/8" is just a notational convenience.

Therefore, it seems clear to me that Network objects should ignore (and perhaps
zero out) the host bits at the right of the netmask. When you configure an
interface from the aforementioned notational convenience, you should retrieve
two objects, a Network, and an Address.

Regards

Antoine.