Steven D'Aprano <steve+pyt...@pearwood.info> added the comment:

Ross: 

"implement this logic for a limited range of non-negative n, imposing an upper 
limit (suggestions welcome) to make sure all provided input can be safely 
processed. We can then build from there to support larger n going forward if 
the demand is out there."

Urgh, please no! Arbitrary limits are horrible. Whatever maximum limit N you 
guess, somebody will want to factorise N+1. Consider this evidence of demand :-)

On what basis would you choose that limit? Basing it on the size of n is the 
wrong answer: factorising 2**10000000 is easy, and will be found by trial 
division almost instantly, even though it's a large number with over three 
million digits.

Another question: since factorization can take a long time, should it be a 
generator that yields the factors as they are found?

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Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue40028>
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