ANN: ActivePython 2.6.6.17 is now available

[Sridhar Ratnakumar]

ActiveState is pleased to announce ActivePython 2.6.6.17, a complete, ready-to-install binary distribution of Python 2.6.

    http://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads

What's New in ActivePython-2.6.6.17
===================================

*Release date: 19-Nov-2010*

New Features & Upgrades
-----------------------

- Security upgrade to openssl-0.9.8p
- Upgrade to PyPM 1.2.5; noteworthy changes:

  - New command 'pypm log' to view log entries for last operation
  - depgraph bug fixes (Bug #88664, #88825)
  - Fix: ignore empty lines in requirements.txt
  - Ignore comments (starting with #) in the requirements file

What's New in ActivePythonEE-2.6.6.16
=====================================

*Release date: 05-Nov-2010*

New Features & Upgrades
-----------------------

- Upgrade to PyPM 1.2.3; noteworthy changes:

  - Faster startup (performance) especially on Windows.
  - Rewrite of an improved dependency algorithm (#88038)
  - install/uninstall now accepts the --nodeps option
  - 'pypm install <url>' to directly download and install a .pypm file
  - 'pypm show' shows other installed packages depending on the shown package
  - 'pypm show' accepts --rdepends to show the list of dependents
  - 'pypm show' shows extra dependencies (for use in the 'install' cmd)
  - 'pypm show' lists all available versions in the repository
  - 'pypm freeze' to dump installed packages as requirements (like 'pip freeze')
  - Support for pip-stye requirements file ('pypm install -r requirements.txt')
  - Bug #87764: 'pypm upgrade' will not error out for missing packages
  - Bug #87902: fix infinite loops with cyclic package dependencies (eg: plone)
  - Bug #88370: Handle file-overwrite conflicts (implement --force)

- Upgraded the following packages:

  - Distribute-0.6.14
  - pip-0.8.1
  - SQLAlchemy-0.6.5
  - virtualenv-1.5.1


What is ActivePython?
=====================

ActivePython is ActiveState's binary distribution of Python. Builds for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux are made freely available. Solaris, HP-UX and AIX builds, and access to older versions are available in ActivePython Business, Enterprise and OEM editions:

    http://www.activestate.com/python

ActivePython includes the Python core and the many core extensions: zlib and bzip2 for data compression, the Berkeley DB (bsddb) and SQLite (sqlite3) database libraries, OpenSSL bindings for HTTPS support, the Tix GUI widgets for Tkinter, ElementTree for XML processing, ctypes (on supported platforms) for low-level library access, and others. The Windows distribution ships with PyWin32 -- a suite of Windows tools developed by Mark Hammond, including bindings to the Win32 API and Windows COM.

ActivePython 2.6, 2.7 and 3.1 also include a binary package manager for Python (PyPM) that can be used to install packages much easily. For example:

  C:\>pypm install mysql-python
  [...]

  C:\>python
  >>> import MySQLdb
  >>>

See this page for full details:

    http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/whatsincluded.html

As well, ActivePython ships with a wealth of documentation for both new and experienced Python programmers. In addition to the core Python docs, ActivePython includes the "What's New in Python" series, "Dive into Python", the Python FAQs & HOWTOs, and the Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs).

An online version of the docs can be found here:

    http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/

We would welcome any and all feedback to:

    activepython-feedback at activestate.com

Please file bugs against ActivePython at:

    http://bugs.activestate.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=ActivePython

Supported Platforms
===================

ActivePython is available for the following platforms:

- Windows/x86   (32-bit)
- Windows/x64   (64-bit) (aka "AMD64")
- Mac OS X      (32-bit and 64-bit; 10.5+)
- Linux/x86     (32-bit)
- Linux/x86_64  (64-bit) (aka "AMD64")

- Solaris/SPARC (32-bit and 64-bit) (Business, Enterprise or OEM edition only)
- Solaris/x86   (32-bit)            (Business, Enterprise or OEM edition only)
- HP-UX/PA-RISC (32-bit)            (Business, Enterprise or OEM edition only)
- HP-UX/IA-64   (32-bit and 64-bit) (Enterprise or OEM edition only)
- AIX/PowerPC   (32-bit and 64-bit) (Business, Enterprise or OEM edition only)

More information about the Business Edition can be found here:

    http://www.activestate.com/business-edition

Custom builds are available in the Enterprise Edition:

    http://www.activestate.com/enterprise-edition

Thanks, and enjoy!

The Python Team

--
Sridhar Ratnakumar
Python Developer
ActiveState, The Dynamic Language Experts

sridharr at activestate.com
http://www.activestate.com

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