[tor-dev] Python TorCtl development questions

[Damian Johnson]

>  I have begun using the Python TorCtl package to develop a gui TOR
> controller.

Great! What are your planned use cases for this gui? Kamran is also
beginning work on a gtk gui for arm (http://www.atagar.com/arm/ - a
python project that uses torctl) so that might be of interest too.
We'd certainly be glad to have the help.

Btw, there's also a wrapper library:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/arm.git/blob/HEAD:/src/util/torTools.py

which provides caching improvements, pid fetching, reattachability,
and an expanded api on top of torctl. At some point I should turn this
into a standalone library but its never been a high enough priority...

> In this examination, I have begun adding
> comments, renaming vars to be more explicit, etc.  How open are the
> developers to these changes?

Changes need to support backward comparability but besides that it's
all good (commenting and var renaming of course are safe). It will be
up to Mike to decide if the changes are accepted or not.

>  Will the devs accept patches to remove unused code.  I'm looking at
> you, TorCtl.TorUtil.Enum.

I'm not sure, up to Mike.

>  Is there interest in making TorCtl into a more mainstream form of
> Python package?

TorCtl already has been packaged for Debian (the python-torctl
package) so a big advantage of a distutils installer have already been
covered. I'm not sure if there's interest in an rpm or distutils for
standalone installation.

>  How far back in Python versions are we trying to maintain
> compatibility?

Definitely back to 2.4, I'm not sure how much further than that.

Cheers! -Damian