forgot to include this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socketcan

SocketCan is the (currently) Linux-specific Berkley-socket CAN implementation created by Volkswagen. Alot of previous CAN implementations use a rather inferior (explained in can.txt in the Linux sources) character device approach.

So the use case for programs that use SocketCan is raw sockets in C, as it is a rather specialty form of interface. But considering that it fits fairly well into an existing interface, it seems appropriate to add to python.

I clicked 2.7 because that was what the patch was written for.

Our personal use case is for an IVI dash, to access vehicle devices that output familiar metrics like speed, tach, fuel levels, seat belts, etc over CAN.