What's missing from python?

[Scott David Daniels]

John Burton wrote:
> One of the reasons I like python so much is that the standard 
> installation comes with a whole lot of libraries to do lots of useful 
> things but there seem to be a few things missing from the standard 
> library which would be useful in many projects:
> 
> Encryption - AES and 3DES. Possibly RSA and Certificate processing.
This almost certainly not go in.  You can get into a big legal hassle
when you ship encryption binaries around, as some governments tend to
think of them as "munitions" and regulate traffic in them.  Python
just wants to avoid that hassle, and so leaves it up to you to put it
together.
> DNS - Something better than gethostbyaddr for looking up other record 
> types.
Hmmm -- I personally have no need, but whatever floats your boat.
The general rule is to build a module, get people using it, and if
there is both enough interest and a maintainer, propose its addition.

> Database - Something suitable for small projects / prototypes like 
> pysqlite or something in pure python even.
I'd personally use such a thing, but perhaps it would be a big
chunk of code.  It would need its own maintainer.  Is pysqlite
sufficiently unencumbered by license?
> SSL/TLS - Some useful support...
If you can figure out how to finesse the encryption issue, I'm sure
something in this area might be a go.

> Is there any reason why those things are not already in the standard 
> library?
Ah -- a volunteer to build and support -- I like that.

-- 
-Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org