to an unsigned int (and back again) on 64-bit machines, even though the
actual value of the Py_ssize_t variable is way below 31 bits. I suspect
compiler-error.
In C++, it's an error to pass a string literal to a char* function
without a const_cast(). Rather than require every C++ extension
module to put a cast around string literals, fix the API to state the
const-ness.
I focused on parts of the API where people usually pass literals:
PyArg_ParseTuple() and friends, Py_BuildValue(), PyMethodDef, the type
slots, etc. Predictably, there were a large set of functions that
needed to be fixed as a result of these changes. The most pervasive
change was to make the keyword args list passed to
PyArg_ParseTupleAndKewords() to be a const char *kwlist[].
One cast was required as a result of the changes: A type object
mallocs the memory for its tp_doc slot and later frees it.
PyTypeObject says that tp_doc is const char *; but if the type was
created by type_new(), we know it is safe to cast to char *.
A new hashlib module to replace the md5 and sha modules. It adds
support for additional secure hashes such as SHA-256 and SHA-512. The
hashlib module uses OpenSSL for fast platform optimized
implementations of algorithms when available. The old md5 and sha
modules still exist as wrappers around hashlib to preserve backwards
compatibility.