hex to signed integer

[Tom Goulet]

Hello,

My question basically is:  What is the opposite of the following?
| "%08X" % -1

I want to convert a string of hexadecimal characters to the signed
integer they would have been before the <print> statement converted
them.  How do I do this in such a way that is compatible with Python
versions 1.5.2 through 2.4, and not machine-dependent?

This is my current best:
| struct.unpack("!l", \
| 	chr(string.atoi(hexbit[0:2], 16)) + \
| 	chr(string.atoi(hexbit[2:4], 16)) + \
| 	chr(string.atoi(hexbit[4:6], 16)) + \
| 	chr(string.atoi(hexbit[6:8], 16)))

Thanks in advance.
-- 
Tom Goulet, tomg at em.ca, D8BAD3BC, http://web.em.ca/~tomg/contact.html