[Python-checkins] r66045 - python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst
andrew.kuchling
python-checkins at python.org
Wed Aug 27 02:27:19 CEST 2008
Author: andrew.kuchling
Date: Wed Aug 27 02:27:18 2008
New Revision: 66045
Log:
Trim whitespace; add a few updates
Modified:
python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst
Modified: python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst
==============================================================================
--- python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst (original)
+++ python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst Wed Aug 27 02:27:18 2008
@@ -529,15 +529,15 @@
The new :mod:`multiprocessing` package lets Python programs create new
processes that will perform a computation and return a result to the
parent. The parent and child processes can communicate using queues
-and pipes, synchronize their operations using locks and semaphores,
-and can share simple arrays of data.
+and pipes, synchronize their operations using locks and semaphores,
+and can share simple arrays of data.
The :mod:`multiprocessing` module started out as an exact emulation of
the :mod:`threading` module using processes instead of threads. That
goal was discarded along the path to Python 2.6, but the general
approach of the module is still similar. The fundamental class
-is the :class:`Process`, which is passed a callable object and
-a collection of arguments. The :meth:`start` method
+is the :class:`Process`, which is passed a callable object and
+a collection of arguments. The :meth:`start` method
sets the callable running in a subprocess, after which you can call
the :meth:`is_alive` method to check whether the subprocess is still running
and the :meth:`join` method to wait for the process to exit.
@@ -668,10 +668,10 @@
The documentation for the :mod:`multiprocessing` module.
:pep:`371` - Addition of the multiprocessing package
- PEP written by Jesse Noller and Richard Oudkerk;
+ PEP written by Jesse Noller and Richard Oudkerk;
implemented by Richard Oudkerk and Jesse Noller.
-
+
.. ======================================================================
.. _pep-3101:
@@ -918,15 +918,15 @@
print len(s) # 12 Unicode characters
-At the C level, Python 3.0 will rename the existing 8-bit
-string type, called :ctype:`PyStringObject` in Python 2.x,
+At the C level, Python 3.0 will rename the existing 8-bit
+string type, called :ctype:`PyStringObject` in Python 2.x,
to :ctype:`PyBytesObject`. Python 2.6 uses ``#define``
-to support using the names :cfunc:`PyBytesObject`,
+to support using the names :cfunc:`PyBytesObject`,
:cfunc:`PyBytes_Check`, :cfunc:`PyBytes_FromStringAndSize`,
and all the other functions and macros used with strings.
-Instances of the :class:`bytes` type are immutable just
-as strings are. A new :class:`bytearray` type stores a mutable
+Instances of the :class:`bytes` type are immutable just
+as strings are. A new :class:`bytearray` type stores a mutable
sequence of bytes::
>>> bytearray([65, 66, 67])
@@ -940,9 +940,9 @@
>>> unicode(str(b), 'utf-8')
u'\u31ef \u3244'
-Byte arrays support most of the methods of string types, such as
+Byte arrays support most of the methods of string types, such as
:meth:`startswith`/:meth:`endswith`, :meth:`find`/:meth:`rfind`,
-and some of the methods of lists, such as :meth:`append`,
+and some of the methods of lists, such as :meth:`append`,
:meth:`pop`, and :meth:`reverse`.
>>> b = bytearray('ABC')
@@ -1436,6 +1436,18 @@
(Contributed by Alexander Belopolsky; :issue:`1686487`.)
+ It's also now legal to provide keyword arguments after a ``*args`` argument
+ to a function call.
+
+ >>> def f(*args, **kw):
+ ... print args, kw
+ ...
+ >>> f(1,2,3, *(4,5,6), keyword=13)
+ (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) {'keyword': 13}
+
+ Previously this would have been a syntax error.
+ (Contributed by Amaury Forgeot d'Arc; :issue:`3473`.)
+
* A new built-in, ``next(*iterator*, [*default*])`` returns the next item
from the specified iterator. If the *default* argument is supplied,
it will be returned if *iterator* has been exhausted; otherwise,
@@ -1485,8 +1497,8 @@
self._x = value / 2
* Several methods of the built-in set types now accept multiple iterables:
- :meth:`intersection`,
- :meth:`intersection_update`,
+ :meth:`intersection`,
+ :meth:`intersection_update`,
:meth:`union`, :meth:`update`,
:meth:`difference` and :meth:`difference_update`.
@@ -1645,10 +1657,21 @@
(Original optimization implemented by Armin Rigo, updated for
Python 2.6 by Kevin Jacobs; :issue:`1700288`.)
+ By default, this change is only applied to types that are included with
+ the Python core. Extension modules may not necessarily be compatible with
+ this cache,
+ so they must explicitly add :cmacro:`Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_VERSION_TAG`
+ to the module's ``tp_flags`` field to enable the method cache.
+ (To be compatible with the method cache, the extension module's code
+ must not directly access and modify the ``tp_dict`` member of
+ any of the types it implements. Most modules don't do this,
+ but it's impossible for the Python interpreter to determine that.
+ See :issue:`1878` for some discussion.)
+
* Function calls that use keyword arguments
are significantly faster thanks to a patch that does a quick pointer
comparison, usually saving the time of a full string comparison.
- (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger, after an initial implementation by
+ (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger, after an initial implementation by
Antoine Pitrou; :issue:`1819`.)
* All of the functions in the :mod:`struct` module have been rewritten in
@@ -1701,10 +1724,10 @@
The encoding used for standard input, output, and standard error can
be specified by setting the :envvar:`PYTHONIOENCODING` environment
-variable before running the interpreter. The value should be a string
-in the form ``**encoding**`` or ``**encoding**:**errorhandler**``.
+variable before running the interpreter. The value should be a string
+in the form ``**encoding**`` or ``**encoding**:**errorhandler**``.
The **encoding** part specifies the encoding's name, e.g. ``utf-8`` or
-``latin-1``; the optional **errorhandler** part specifies
+``latin-1``; the optional **errorhandler** part specifies
what to do with characters that can't be handled by the encoding,
and should be one of "error", "ignore", or "replace". (Contributed
by Martin von Loewis.)
@@ -1814,18 +1837,18 @@
:mod:`videoreader`,
:mod:`WAIT`.
-* The :mod:`asyncore` and :mod:`asynchat` modules are
- being actively maintained again, and a number of patches and bugfixes
- were applied. (Maintained by Josiah Carlson; see :issue:`1736190` for
+* The :mod:`asyncore` and :mod:`asynchat` modules are
+ being actively maintained again, and a number of patches and bugfixes
+ were applied. (Maintained by Josiah Carlson; see :issue:`1736190` for
one patch.)
* The :mod:`bsddb.dbshelve` module now uses the highest pickling protocol
available, instead of restricting itself to protocol 1.
(Contributed by W. Barnes; :issue:`1551443`.)
-* The :mod:`cgi` module will now read variables from the query string of an
- HTTP POST request. This makes it possible to use form actions with
- URLs such as "/cgi-bin/add.py?category=1". (Contributed by
+* The :mod:`cgi` module will now read variables from the query string of an
+ HTTP POST request. This makes it possible to use form actions with
+ URLs such as "/cgi-bin/add.py?category=1". (Contributed by
Alexandre Fiori and Nubis; :issue:`1817`.)
* The :mod:`cmath` module underwent an extensive set of revisions,
@@ -1973,7 +1996,7 @@
* When possible, the :mod:`getpass` module will now use
:file:`/dev/tty` (when available) to print
a prompting message and read the password, falling back to using
- standard error and standard input. If the password may be echoed to
+ standard error and standard input. If the password may be echoed to
the terminal, a warning is printed before the prompt is displayed.
(Contributed by Gregory P. Smith.)
@@ -1998,7 +2021,7 @@
:mod:`heapq` is now implemented to only use less-than comparison,
instead of the less-than-or-equal comparison it previously used.
- This makes :mod:`heapq`'s usage of a type match that of the
+ This makes :mod:`heapq`'s usage of a type match that of the
:meth:`list.sort` method.
(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
@@ -2094,8 +2117,8 @@
is true, opening of the log file is deferred until the first
:meth:`emit` call is made. (Contributed by Vinay Sajip.)
- :class:`TimedRotatingFileHandler` also has a *utc* constructor
- parameter. If the argument is true, UTC time will be used
+ :class:`TimedRotatingFileHandler` also has a *utc* constructor
+ parameter. If the argument is true, UTC time will be used
in determining when midnight occurs and in generating filenames;
otherwise local time will be used.
@@ -2246,6 +2269,13 @@
time-consuming searches can now be interrupted.
(Contributed by Josh Hoyt and Ralf Schmitt; :issue:`846388`.)
+ The regular expression module is implemented by compiling bytecodes
+ for a tiny regex-specific virtual machine. Untrusted code
+ could create malicious strings of bytecode directly and cause crashes,
+ so Python 2.6 includes a verifier for the regex bytecode.
+ (Contributed by Guido van Rossum from work for Google App Engine;
+ :issue:`3487`.)
+
* The :mod:`rgbimg` module has been removed.
* The :mod:`rlcompleter` module's :meth:`Completer.complete()` method
@@ -2272,17 +2302,17 @@
* The :func:`shutil.copytree` function now has an optional **ignore** argument
that takes a callable object. This callable will receive each directory path
and a list of the directory's contents, and returns a list of names that
- will be ignored, not copied.
+ will be ignored, not copied.
The :mod:`shutil` module also provides an :func:`ignore_patterns`
function for use with this new parameter.
:func:`ignore_patterns` takes an arbitrary number of glob-style patterns
and will ignore any files and directories that match this pattern.
The following example copies a directory tree, but skip both SVN's internal
- :file:`.svn` directories and Emacs backup
+ :file:`.svn` directories and Emacs backup
files, which have names ending with '~'::
- shutil.copytree('Doc/library', '/tmp/library',
+ shutil.copytree('Doc/library', '/tmp/library',
ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('*~', '.svn'))
(Contributed by Tarek Ziadé; :issue:`2663`.)
@@ -2395,10 +2425,10 @@
These attributes are all read-only.
(Contributed by Christian Heimes.)
- A new function, :func:`getsizeof`, takes a Python object and returns
+ A new function, :func:`getsizeof`, takes a Python object and returns
the amount of memory used by the object, measured in bytes. Built-in
objects return correct results; third-party extensions may not,
- but can define a :meth:`__sizeof__` method to return the
+ but can define a :meth:`__sizeof__` method to return the
object's size.
(Contributed by Robert Schuppenies; :issue:`2898`.)
@@ -2487,9 +2517,18 @@
(Contributed by Dwayne Bailey; :issue:`1581073`.)
-* The :mod:`threading` module's :class:`Thread` objects
- gained a :meth:`getIdent` method that returns the thread's
- identifier, a nonzero integer. (Contributed by Gregory P. Smith;
+* The :mod:`threading` module API is being changed for Python 3.0, to
+ use properties such as :attr:`daemon` instead of :meth:`setDaemon`
+ and :meth:`isDaemon` methods, and some methods have been renamed to
+ use underscores instead of camel-case; for example, the
+ :meth:`activeCount` method is renamed to :meth:`active_count`. The
+ 2.6 version of the module supports the same properties and renamed
+ methods, but doesn't remove the old methods. (Carried out by
+ various people, most notably Benjamin Peterson.)
+
+ The :mod:`threading` module's :class:`Thread` objects
+ gained an :attr:`ident` property that returns the thread's
+ identifier, a nonzero integer. (Contributed by Gregory P. Smith;
:issue:`2871`.)
* The :mod:`timeit` module now accepts callables as well as strings
@@ -2502,7 +2541,7 @@
:issue:`1533909`.)
* The :mod:`Tkinter` module now accepts lists and tuples for options,
- separating the elements by spaces before passing the resulting value to
+ separating the elements by spaces before passing the resulting value to
Tcl/Tk.
(Contributed by Guilherme Polo; :issue:`2906`.)
@@ -2510,18 +2549,18 @@
Gregor Lingl. New features in the module include:
* Better animation of turtle movement and rotation.
- * Control over turtle movement using the new delay(),
+ * Control over turtle movement using the new delay(),
tracer(), and speed() methods.
- * The ability to set new shapes for the turtle, and to
+ * The ability to set new shapes for the turtle, and to
define a new coordinate system.
* Turtles now have an undo() method that can roll back actions.
* Simple support for reacting to input events such as mouse and keyboard
activity, making it possible to write simple games.
- * A :file:`turtle.cfg` file can be used to customize the starting appearance
+ * A :file:`turtle.cfg` file can be used to customize the starting appearance
of the turtle's screen.
* The module's docstrings can be replaced by new docstrings that have been
translated into another language.
-
+
(:issue:`1513695`)
* An optional ``timeout`` parameter was added to the
@@ -2569,7 +2608,7 @@
dates before 1900 (contributed by Ralf Schmitt; :issue:`2014`)
and 64-bit integers represented by using ``<i8>`` in XML-RPC responses
(contributed by Riku Lindblad; :issue:`2985`).
-
+
* The :mod:`zipfile` module's :class:`ZipFile` class now has
:meth:`extract` and :meth:`extractall` methods that will unpack
a single file or all the files in the archive to the current directory, or
@@ -2585,14 +2624,14 @@
(Contributed by Alan McIntyre; :issue:`467924`.)
- The :meth:`open`, :meth:`read` and :meth:`extract` methods can now
+ The :meth:`open`, :meth:`read` and :meth:`extract` methods can now
take either a filename or a :class:`ZipInfo` object. This is useful when an
archive accidentally contains a duplicated filename.
(Contributed by Graham Horler; :issue:`1775025`.)
Finally, :mod:`zipfile` now supports using Unicode filenames
for archived files. (Contributed by Alexey Borzenkov; :issue:`1734346`.)
-
+
.. ======================================================================
.. whole new modules get described in subsections here
@@ -2603,7 +2642,7 @@
of Python code. For Python 2.6, Armin Ronacher contributed a set of
helper functions that perform various common tasks. These will be useful
for HTML templating packages, code analyzers, and similar tools that
-process Python code.
+process Python code.
The :func:`parse` function takes an expression and returns an AST.
The :func:`dump` function outputs a representation of a tree, suitable
@@ -2638,7 +2677,7 @@
representing a literal expression, one that contains a Python
expression containing only strings, numbers, dictionaries, etc. but no
statements or function calls, and returns the resulting value. If you
-need to unserialize an expression but need to worry about security
+need to unserialize an expression but need to worry about security
and can't risk using an :func:`eval` call, :func:`literal_eval` will
handle it safely::
@@ -2663,22 +2702,22 @@
Python 3.0 makes various changes to the repertoire of built-in
functions, and most of the changes can't be introduced in the Python
2.x series because they would break compatibility.
-The :mod:`future_builtins` module provides versions
-of these built-in functions that can be imported when writing
+The :mod:`future_builtins` module provides versions
+of these built-in functions that can be imported when writing
3.0-compatible code.
The functions in this module currently include:
-* ``ascii(**obj**)``: equivalent to :func:`repr`. In Python 3.0,
- :func:`repr` will return a Unicode string, while :func:`ascii` will
+* ``ascii(**obj**)``: equivalent to :func:`repr`. In Python 3.0,
+ :func:`repr` will return a Unicode string, while :func:`ascii` will
return a pure ASCII bytestring.
-* ``filter(**predicate**, **iterable**)``,
- ``map(**func**, **iterable1**, ...)``: the 3.0 versions
+* ``filter(**predicate**, **iterable**)``,
+ ``map(**func**, **iterable1**, ...)``: the 3.0 versions
return iterators, differing from the 2.x built-ins that return lists.
-* ``hex(**value**)``, ``oct(**value**)``: instead of calling the
- :meth:`__hex__` or :meth:`__oct__` methods, these versions will
+* ``hex(**value**)``, ``oct(**value**)``: instead of calling the
+ :meth:`__hex__` or :meth:`__oct__` methods, these versions will
call the :meth:`__index__` method and convert the result to hexadecimal
or octal.
@@ -2753,8 +2792,8 @@
ctypes Enhancements
--------------------------------------------------
-Thomas Heller continued to maintain and enhance the
-:mod:`ctypes` module.
+Thomas Heller continued to maintain and enhance the
+:mod:`ctypes` module.
:mod:`ctypes` now supports a :class:`c_bool` datatype
that represents the C99 ``bool`` type. (Contributed by David Remahl;
@@ -2775,13 +2814,13 @@
you can supply ``use_errno=True`` as a keyword parameter
to the :func:`DLL` function
and then call the module-level methods :meth:`set_errno`
-and :meth:`get_errno` to set and retrieve the error value.
+and :meth:`get_errno` to set and retrieve the error value.
The Win32 LastError variable is supported similarly by
the :func:`DLL`, :func:`OleDLL`, and :func:`WinDLL` functions.
You supply ``use_last_error=True`` as a keyword parameter
and then call the module-level methods :meth:`set_last_error`
-and :meth:`get_last_error`.
+and :meth:`get_last_error`.
The :func:`byref` function, used to retrieve a pointer to a ctypes
instance, now has an optional **offset** parameter that is a byte
@@ -2823,7 +2862,7 @@
(Implemented by Christian Heimes.)
* On MacOS X, Python 2.6 can be compiled as a 4-way universal build.
- The :program:`configure` script
+ The :program:`configure` script
can take a :option:`--with-universal-archs=[32-bit|64-bit|all]`
switch, controlling whether the binaries are built for 32-bit
architectures (x86, PowerPC), 64-bit (x86-64 and PPC-64), or both.
@@ -2964,9 +3003,9 @@
registry reflection for 32-bit processes running on 64-bit systems.
(:issue:`1753245`)
-* The :mod:`msilib` module's :class:`Record` object
- gained :meth:`GetInteger` and :meth:`GetString` methods that
- return field values as an integer or a string.
+* The :mod:`msilib` module's :class:`Record` object
+ gained :meth:`GetInteger` and :meth:`GetString` methods that
+ return field values as an integer or a string.
(Contributed by Floris Bruynooghe; :issue:`2125`.)
* The new default compiler on Windows is Visual Studio 2008 (VS 9.0). The
@@ -2982,9 +3021,9 @@
Port-Specific Changes: MacOS X
-----------------------------------
-* When compiling a framework build of Python, you can now specify the
- framework name to be used by providing the
- :option:`--with-framework-name=` option to the
+* When compiling a framework build of Python, you can now specify the
+ framework name to be used by providing the
+ :option:`--with-framework-name=` option to the
:program:`configure` script.
.. ======================================================================
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