I use it frequently for an ongoing project and have some use-cases I would like to see covered. Since I have some time on my hands right now, I am considering to spend some time addressing the open issues as well.
I have not contributed to python before, but I am aware of the developer guide. Is there anything specific to http.cookies I should watch out for? The code does not look too daunting, but I am a little hesitant as there does not seem to be much activity.
Correct, we have no active core devs willing to claim expertise there.
Not specific to http.cookies in particular but more general advice: Our biggest problem with anything in the standard library is backwards compatibility. When making any changes, existing users should be assumed to rely on existing behaviors (regardless of if someone else considers such behaviors to be a bug). So when changing anything, determining what kinds of existing uses that could break, how valid those uses are, and how such code would need to adapt to a change if it did rely on it and if we can meaningfully minimize such disruption without making maintenance more burdensome are the added dimensions to consider.
Otherwise, please feel free to pickup issues and work on things in the cookies domain. The devguide is our starting point.
For fundamentally new features, if those can start life in a PyPI package to demonstrate their utility among actual users it is ideal when possible. I realize that might not work in the realm of cookies where things may only be useful when plumbed into HTTP stack code? Something to consider. Whether that is possible or not depends a lot on the specifics.