i ran into a problem that i've seen several other people
describe where they can't authenticate to their particular
mail server. i dug into this (my mail server is smtp.mac.com)
and discovered that smtplib.py didn't support the specific
type of auth that this server required.

so, this patch,allows authentication to these specific
server types. i also reworked one token to make it
a bit more modular. the patch is attached, generated
of form: diff smtplib.py_orig smtplib.py_new

i'm new to python, and new to the whole patch process
on sourceforge, so  please let me know what i can do
to test, or how else i can work to get this in the next
python version. thank you!
bob

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On patches: Please always use context (-c) or unified (-u) 
diffs; those stay valid longer.

On AUTH=LOGIN: Can you please try

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?
func=detail&aid=572031&group_id=5470&atid=305470

This pre-RFC AUTH protocol is by far not an invention of 
smtp.mac.com (or specific to it) - it is originally a Netscape 
invention, and widely implemented.

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The auth=login patch has been applied, so this one should be
obsolete.