[Python-Dev] [RELEASED] Python 3.4.0b1

[Larry Hastings]

On behalf of the Python development team, it's my privilege to announce
the first beta release of Python 3.4.

This is a preview release, and its use is not recommended for
production settings.

Python 3.4 includes a range of improvements of the 3.x series, including
hundreds of small improvements and bug fixes.  Major new features and
changes in the 3.4 release series include:

* PEP 435, a standardized "enum" module
* PEP 436, a build enhancement that will help generate introspection
            information for builtins
* PEP 442, improved semantics for object finalization
* PEP 443, adding single-dispatch generic functions to the standard library
* PEP 445, a new C API for implementing custom memory allocators
* PEP 446, changing file descriptors to not be inherited by default
            in subprocesses
* PEP 450, a new "statistics" module
* PEP 453, a bundled installer for the *pip* package manager
* PEP 456, a new hash algorithm for Python strings and binary data
* PEP 3154, a new and improved protocol for pickled objects
* PEP 3156, a new "asyncio" module, a new framework for asynchronous I/O

Python 3.4 is now in "feature freeze", meaning that no new features will be
added.  The final release is projected for late February 2014.


To download Python 3.4.0b1 visit:

     http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.4.0/


Please consider trying Python 3.4.0b1 with your code and reporting any
new issues you notice to:

      http://bugs.python.org/


Enjoy!

--
Larry Hastings, Release Manager
larry at hastings.org
(on behalf of the entire python-dev team and 3.4's contributors)