The next and final alpha snapshot planned for the 3.6 release cycle is coming up soon. Keep in mind that the feature development phase of the 3.6 release cycle is nearing an end. The next major milestone is a big one: the first beta shapshot, 3.6.0b1, scheduled for Monday, 09-12, a little over four weeks from now. That will mark the end of the unrestricted feature development phase and the start of the bugfix/stabilization/testing phase. All feature code for 3.6.0 should be checked in by b1. During the beta phase, the emphasis will be on fixes for new features, fixes for all categories of bugs and regressions, and documentation fixes/updates. After b1, new features should be targeted for 3.7; more details will be forthcoming by b1.
As a reminder, alpha releases are intended to make it easier for the wider community to test the current state of new features and bug fixes for an upcoming Python release as a whole and for us to test the release process. During the alpha phase, features may be added, modified, or deleted up until the start of the beta phase. Alpha users beware!
To recap:
2016-08-15 ~12:00 UTC: code snapshot for 3.6.0 alpha 4.
now to 2016-09-12: Alpha phase (unrestricted feature development)
2016-09-12: 3.6.0 feature code freeze, 3.7.0 feature development begins
2016-09-12 to 2016-12-04: 3.6.0 beta phase (bug and regression fixes, no new features)
2016-12-04 3.6.0 release candidate 1 (3.6.0 code freeze)
2016-12-16 3.6.0 release (3.6.0rc1 plus, if necessary, any dire emergency fixes)
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0494/
--Neτ
-- Ned Deily nad@python.org -- []