On behalf of the Python development team, I'm happy to announce the first release candidate of Python 3.1. Python 3.1 focuses on the stabilization and optimization of the features and changes that Python 3.0 introduced. For example, the new I/O system has been rewritten in C for speed. File system APIs that use unicode strings now handle paths with undecodable bytes in them. Other features include an ordered dictionary implementation, a condensed syntax for nested with statements, and support for ttk Tile in Tkinter. For a more extensive list of changes in 3.1, see http://doc.python.org/dev/py3k/whatsnew/3.1.html or Misc/NEWS in the Python distribution. This is a release candidate, and as such, we do not recommend use in production environments. However, please take this opportunity to test the release with your libraries or applications. This will hopefully discover bugs before the final release and allow you to determine how changes in 3.1 might impact you. If you find things broken or incorrect, please submit a bug report at http://bugs.python.org For more information and downloadable distributions, see the Python 3.1 website: http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.1/ See PEP 375 for release schedule details: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0375/ Enjoy, -- Benjamin Benjamin Peterson benjamin at python.org Release Manager (on behalf of the entire python-dev team and 3.1's contributors)