[Python-Dev] PEP 3144 review. (original) (raw)

R. David Murray rdmurray at bitdance.com
Fri Sep 18 04:30:24 CEST 2009

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 at 11:04, Andrew McNamara wrote:

[attribution lost; apparently Steven D'Aprano given the CC]

To a non-specialist, "the network address" is ambiguous. There are many addresses in a network, and none of them are the entire network. It's like saying, given a list [2, 4, 8, 12], what's "the list item"? A "network address" is an IP address and mask, but I understand your confusion - we're mixing terminology from disperate domains. In my postings, I have tried to refer to Network (a containter) and Address (an item).

Apparently not, in many people's vocabulary. The 'network address' is used to designate the IP address whose bits corresponding to the one bits in the mask have been set to zero (ie: the first IP address in the network range).

It is interesting how this item seems to lead to the greatest amount of confusion on everyone's part, and I'm guessing it is because the common terminology and usage blurs the line between addresses and networks. And that's what we are trying to make clear(er) through a well structured API.

--David

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