This is a Python extension module wrapping the C API for Spread, an open source group communications package. The extension module was written by PythonLabs, primarily Jeremy Hylton, Guido van Rossum and Tim Peters. It is released under a standard PSF open source license.
Older releases and general information can be found at the Spread wrapper module's original home on python.org.
Version 1.5 of the wrapper module is intended to be used with Spread 3.17.3. On Windows, there are two installers, one for use with the Python 2.3 line (2.3.5 is recommended), the other with the Python 2.4 line (2.4.1 is recommended).
No changes were made since 1.5 beta 1. Compared to 1.4 final:
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Spread membership messages are complicated, and before Spread 3.17 it wasn't actually possible to decode them correctly in all cases. For example, if the user changed Spread's MAX_PRIVATE_NAME, MAX_PROC_NAME, and MAX_GROUP_NAME #defines, there was no way to guess where various values began in the buffer SP_receive() was given, and segfaults or data loss could occur if you guessed wrong.
This wasn't entirely fixed until Spread 3.17.2 (Spread itself could still segfault if the user changed these #defines), but at least 3.17 introduced 3 new Spread API functions so that clients can determine where fields in the buffer begin. The Python Spread wrapper module has been updated to use them.
The source code for the Python Spread wrapper module is maintained on Zope Corporation's CVS server, cvs.zope.org, under Packages/Spread.
This product uses software developed by Spread Concepts LLC for use in the Spread toolkit. For more information about Spread see http://www.spread.org.