[Python-Dev] BDFL ruling request: should we block forever waiting for high-quality random bits?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, Jun 09, 2016 at 12:54:31PM -0400, Ben Leslie wrote:

> I think an exception is much easier for a user to deal with from a
> practical point of view. Trying to work out why a process has hung is
> obviously possible, but not necessarily easy.
> 
> Having a process crash due to an exception is very easy to diagnose by
> comparison.

That only makes sense if the application is going to block for (say) 
five or ten minutes. If it's going to block for three seconds, you might 
not even notice. At least not on a server.

But what are you going to do when you catch that exception?

- Sleep for a few seconds, and try again? That's just blocking.

- Stop waiting on secure randomness, and use something low quality 
  and insecure? That's how you get exploits.

- Crash?


-- 
Steve