[Tutor] A question on getting binary data from the net

[Gregor Lingl]

> 
> import urllib
> def randombytes(n=128):
>     urlstr="http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Hotbits?nbytes="+str(n)
>     t = urllib.urlopen(urlstr).read()
>     start = t.find('<pre>')+5
>     end   = t.find('</pre>')
>     hexes = ''.join(t[start:end].split())
>     bytes=[]
>     for i in range(0,len(hexes),2):
>         bytes.append(int(hexes[i:i+2], 16))
>     return bytes
> 

I think, of course, this could be done in two or three lines if
one knew how to fetch binary data from the net - using this form
of the url:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Hotbits?nbytes=128&fmt=bin

Can somebody explain how to accomplish this in Python?

Gregor