a text string instead of bytes. (This being hex digits it *should*
be a text string -- that it wasn't before was a misunderstanding on
my part of the C code.)
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.