Below is a list of all relevant changes since the release 1.4, up till
the release of 1.5a3. At the end is a list of changes made since
-1.5a3 that will be in 1.5a4; this list is not yet complete and will be
-merged with the main list later.
+1.5a3 up to the release of 1.5a4.
A note on attributions: while I have sprinkled some names throughout
here, I'm grateful to many more people who remain anonymous. You may
format codes for unsigned integers of various sizes (always using
Python long ints for 'I' and 'L'), 's' with a size prefix for strings,
and 'p' for "Pascal strings" (with a leading length byte, included in
-the size; blame Hannu Krosing). A prefix '>' forces big-endian data
-and '<' forces little-endian data; these also select standard data
-sizes and disable automatic alignment (use pad bytes as needed).
+the size; blame Hannu Krosing; new in 1.5a4). A prefix '>' forces
+big-endian data and '<' forces little-endian data; these also select
+standard data sizes and disable automatic alignment (use pad bytes as
+needed).
- The array module supports uppercase format codes for unsigned data
formats (like the struct module).
binary distribution(s) when these are ready.
+======================================================================
+
+
Fixed after 1.5a3 was released
------------------------------
The following changes have been made to the source base after the
-release of 1.5a3. These need to be merged into their respective
-categories for the next release.
+release of 1.5a3. They still need to be sorted. They also need to be
+merged into their respective categories for the final release, but
+it's useful to have them separately during the alpha test cycle.
- faqwiz.py: version 0.8; Recognize https:// as URL; <html>...</html>
feature; better install instructions; removed faqmain.py (which was an
- urllib.py: close the socket and temp file in URLopener.retrieve() so
that multiple retrievals using the same connection work.
+- All standard exceptions are now classes by default; use -X to make
+them strings (for backward compatibility only).
+
+- There's a new standard exception hierarchy, defined in the standard
+library module exceptions.py (which you never need to import
+explicitly). See
+http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/stdexceptions.html for
+more info.
+
- Three new C API functions:
- int PyErr_GivenExceptionMatches(obj1, obj2)
argument. If value is None, it uses an empty arg tuple, and if
the value is a tuple, it uses just that.
-- Demo/metaclasses: new demo subdir explains metaclasses (read
-index.html in a browser).
+- Another new C API function: PyErr_NewException() creates a new
+exception class derived from Exception; when -X is given, it creates a
+new string exception.
- core interpreter: remove the distinction between tuple and list
unpacking; allow an arbitrary sequence on the right hand side of any
some applications than using either has_key() or try:...except
KeyError:....
+- Tools/webchecker/: some small changes to webchecker.py; added
+websucker.py (a simple web site mirroring script).
+
+- Dictionary objects now have a get() method (also in UserDict.py).
+dict.get(key, default) returns dict[key] if it exists and default
+otherwise; default defaults to None.
+
+- Tools/scripts/logmerge.py: print the author, too.
+
+- Changes to import: support for "import a.b.c" is now built in. See
+http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/packages.html
+for more info. Most important deviations from "ni.py": __init__.py is
+executed in the package's namespace instead of as a submodule; and
+there's no support for "__" or "__domain__". Note that "ni.py" is not
+changed to match this -- it is simply declared obsolete (while at the
+same time, it is documented...:-( ).
+Unfortunately, "ihooks.py" has not been upgraded (but see "knee.py"
+for an example implementation of hierarchical module import written in
+Python).
+
+- More changes to import: the site.py module is now imported by
+default when Python is initialized; use -S to disable it. The site.py
+module extends the path with several more directories: site-packages
+inside the lib/python1.5/ directory, site-python in the lib/
+directory, and pathnames mentioned in *.pth files found in either of
+those directories. See
+http://grail.cnri.reston.va.us/python/essays/packages.html
+for more info.
+
+- Changes to standard library subdirectory names: those subdirectories
+that are not packages have been renamed with a hypen in their name,
+e.g. lib-tk, lib-stdwin, plat-win, plat-linux2, plat-sunos5, dos-8x3.
+The test suite is now a package -- to run a test, you must now use
+"import test.test_foo".
+
+- A completely new re.py module is provided (thanks to Andrew
+Kuchling) which uses Philip Hazel's "pcre" re compiler and engine.
+For a while, the "old" re.py (which was new in 1.5a3!) will be kept
+around as re1.py. The "old" regex module and underlying parser and
+engine are still present -- while regex is now officially obsolete, it
+will probably take several major release cycles before it can be
+removed.
+
+- The posix module now has a strerror() function which translates an
+error code to a string.
+
+- The emacs.py module (which was long obsolete) has been removed.
+
+- The universal makefile Misc/Makefile.pre.in now features an
+"install" target. By default, installed shared libraries go into
+$exec_prefix/lib/python$VERSION/site-packages/.
+
+- The install-sh script is installed with the other configuration
+specific files (in the config/ subdirectory).
+
+- It turns out whatsound.py and sndhdr.py were identical modules.
+Since there's also an imghdr.py file, I propose to make sndhdr.py the
+official one. For compatibility, whatsound.py imports * from
+sndhdr.py.
+
+- Class objects have a new attribute, __module__, giving the name of
+the module in which they were declared. This is useful for pickle and
+for printing the full name of a class exception.
+
+- Many extension modules no longer issue a fatal error when their
+initialization fails; the importing code now checks whether an error
+occurred during module initialization, and correctly propagates the
+exception to the import statement.
+
+- Most extension modules now raise class-based exceptions (except when
+-X is used).
+
+- Subtle changes to PyEval_{Save,Restore}Thread(): always swap the
+thread state -- just don't manipulate the lock if it isn't there.
+
+- Fixed a bug in Python/getopt.c that made it do the wrong thing when
+an option was a single '-'. Thanks to Andrew Kuchling.
+
+- New module mimetypes.py will guess a MIME type from a filename's
+extension.
+
+- Windows: the DLL version is now settable via a resource rather than
+being hardcoded. This can be used for "branding" a binary Python
+distribution.
+
+- urllib.py is now threadsafe -- it now uses re instead of regex, and
+sys.exc_info() instead of sys.exc_{type,value}.
+
+- Many other library modules that used to use
+sys.exc_{type,value,traceback} are now more thread-safe by virtue of
+using sys.exc_info().
+
+- The functions in popen2 have an optional buffer size parameter.
+Also, the command argument can now be either a string (passed to the
+shell) or a list of arguments (passed directly to execv).
+
+- The thread support for _tkinter.c now works. The bad news is that
+it requires a modified version of a file in the standard Tcl
+distribution, which you must compile with a -I option pointing to the
+standard Tcl source tree. For this reason, the thread support is
+disabled by default.
+
+- The errno extension module adds two tables: errorcode maps errno
+numbers to errno names (e.g. EINTR), and errorcode maps them to
+message strings. (The latter is redundant because the new call
+posix.strerror() now does the same, but alla...) (Marc-Andre Lemburg)
+
+- The readline extension module now provides some interfaces to
+internal readline routines that make it possible to write a completer
+in Python. An example completer, rlcompleter.py, is provided.
+
+ When completing a simple identifier, it completes keywords,
+ built-ins and globals in __main__; when completing
+ NAME.NAME..., it evaluates (!) the expression up to the last
+ dot and completes its attributes.
+
+ It's very cool to do "import string" type "string.", hit the
+ completion key (twice), and see the list of names defined by
+ the string module!
+
+ Tip: to use the tab key as the completion key, call
+
+ readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
+
+- The traceback.py module has a new function tb_lineno() by Marc-Andre
+Lemburg which extracts the line number from the linenumber table in
+the code object. Apparently the traceback object doesn't contains the
+right linenumber when -O is used. Rather than guessing whether -O is
+on or off, the module itself uses tb_lineno() unconditionally.
+
+- Fixed Demo/tkinter/matt/canvas-moving-or-creating.py: change bind()
+to tag_bind() so it works again.
+
+- The pystone script is now a standard library module. Example use:
+"import test.pystone; test.pystone.main()".
+
+- The import of the readline module in interactive mode is now also
+attempted when -i is specified. (Yes, I know, giving in to Marc-Andre
+Lemburg, who asked for this. :-)
+
+- rfc822.py: Entirely rewritten parseaddr() function by Sjoerd
+Mullender, to be closer to the standard. This fixes the getaddr()
+method. Unfortunately, getaddrlist() is as broken as ever, since it
+splits on commas without regard for RFC 822 quoting conventions.
+
+- pprint.py: correctly emit trailing "," in singleton tuples.
+
+- _tkinter.c: export names for its type objects, TkappType and
+TkttType.
+
+- pickle.py: use __module__ when defined; fix a particularly hard to
+reproduce bug that confuses the memo when temporary objects are
+returned by custom pickling interfaces; and a semantic change: when
+unpickling the instance variables of an instance, use
+inst.__dict__.update(value) instead of a for loop with setattr() over
+the value.keys(). This is more consistent (the pickling doesn't use
+getattr() either but pickles inst.__dict__) and avoids problems with
+instances that have a __setattr__ hook. But it *is* a semantic change
+(because the setattr hook is no longer used). So beware!
+
+- config.h is now installed (at last) in
+$exec_prefix/include/python1.5/. For most sites, this means that it
+is actually in $prefix/include/python1.5/, with all the other Python
+include files, since $prefix and $exec_prefix are the same by
+default.
+
+- The imp module now supports parts of the functionality to implement
+import of hierarchical module names. It now supports find_module()
+and load_module() for all types of modules. Docstrings have been
+added for those functions in the built-in impo module that are still
+relevant (some old interfaces are obsolete). For a sample
+implementation of hierarchical module import in Python, see the new
+library module knee.py.
+
+- The % operator on string objects now allows arbitrary nested parens
+in a %(...)X style format. (Brad Howes)
+
+- Reverse the order in which Setup and Setup.local are passed to the
+makesetup script. This allows variable definitions in Setup.local to
+override definitions in Setup. (But you'll still have to edit Setup
+if you want to disable modules that are enabled by default, or if such
+modules need non-standard options.)
+
+- Added PyImport_ImportModuleEx(name, globals, locals, fromlist); this
+is like PyImport_ImporModule(name) but receives the globals and locals
+dict and the fromlist arguments as well. (The name is a char*; the
+others are PyObject*s).
+
+- The 'p' format in the struct extension module alloded to above is
+new in 1.5a4.
+
+- The xlib extension module has been debugged and improved.
+
+- The types.py module now uses try-except in a few places to make it
+more likely that it can be imported in restricted mode. Some type
+names are undefined in that case, e.g. CodeType (inaccessible),
+FileType (not always accessible), and TracebackType and FrameType
+(inaccessible).
+
+- In urllib.py: added separate administration of temporary files
+created y URLopener.retrieve() so cleanup() can properly remove them.
+The old code removed everything in tempcache which was a bad idea if
+the user had passed a non-temp file into it. Also, in basejoin(),
+interpret relative paths starting in "../". This is necessary if the
+server uses symbolic links.
+
+- The Windows build procedure and project files are now based on
+Microsoft Visual C++ 5.x. The build now takes place in the PCbuild
+directory. It is much more robust, and properly builds separate Debug
+and Release versions. (The installer will be added shortly.)
+
+- Added casts and changed some return types in regexpr.c to avoid
+compiler warnings or errors on some platforms.
+
+- The AIX build tools for shared libraries now supports VPATH. (Donn
+Cave)
+
+- By default, disable the "portable" multimedia modules audioop,
+imageop, and rgbimg, since they don't work on 64-bit platforms.
+
+- Fixed a nasty bug in cStringIO.c when code was actually using the
+close() method (the destructors would try to free certain fields a
+second time).
+
+- For those who think they need it, there's a "user.py" module. This
+is *not* imported by default, but can be imported to run user-specific
+setup commands, ~/.pythonrc.py.
+
+- Various speedups suggested by Fredrik Lundh, Marc-Andre Lemburg,
+Vladimir Marangozov, and others.
+
+- Added os.altsep; this is '/' on DOS/Windows, and None on systems
+with a sane filename syntax.
+
+- os.py: Write out the dynamic OS choice, to avoid exec statements.
+Adding support for a new OS is now a bit more work, but I bet that
+'dos' or 'nt' will cover most situations...
+
+- The obsolete exception AccessError is now really gone.
+
+- Tools/faqwiz/: New installation instructions show how to maintain
+multiple FAQs. Removed bootstrap script from end of faqwiz.py module.
+Added instructions to bootstrap script, too. Version bumped to 0.8.
+Added <html>...</html> feature suggested by Skip Montanaro. Added
+leading text for Roulette, default to 'Hit Reload ...'. Fix typo in
+default SRCDIR.
+
+- Documentation for the relatively new modules "keyword" and "symbol"
+has been added (to the end of the section on the parser extension
+module).
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