RELEASED Python 2.4, alpha 1

[Anthony Baxter]

On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community, I'm
happy to announce the first alpha of Python 2.4.

Python 2.4a1 is an alpha release. We'd greatly appreciate it if you
could download it, kick the tires and let us know of any problems you
find, but it is not suitable for production usage.

     http://www.python.org/2.4/

In this release we have a number of new modules, a number of existing
modules that have been reimplemented in C for speed, a large number of
improvements and additions to existing modules and an even larger list
of bugs squished. See either the highlights, the What's New in Python
2.4, or the detailed NEWS file -- all available from the Python 2.4
webpage.

There will be at least one more alpha release in a couple of weeks to
pick up a few new features that didn't make it into the first alpha,
before we release 2.4 betas and then the final release.

Please log any problems you have with this release in the SourceForge
bug tracker (noting that you're using 2.4a1):

     http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=5470

Enjoy the new release,
Anthony

Anthony Baxter
anthony at python.org
Python Release Manager
(on behalf of the entire python-dev team)