PEP 376

[Richard Brodie]

"Joachim Strömbergson" <Joachim at Strombergson.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.2422.1246418400.8015.python-list at python.org...

> Even so, choosing md5 in 2009 for something that (hopefully) will be
> used in years is a bad design decision. It creates a dependency for to
> an algorithm that all sensible recommendations point you to move away
> from.

Why not write the field as algorithm:value?

e.g. sha1:8590b685654367e3eba70dc00df7e45e88c21da4

Installers can fallback to using hashlib.new(), so you can plug in a new
algorithm without changing the PEP or the installer code.