(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger and Mark Dickinson.)
+* The fields in :func:`format` strings can now be automatically
+ numbered::
+
+ >>> 'Sir {} of {}'.format('Gallahad', 'Camelot')
+ 'Sir Gallahad of Camelot'
+
+ Formerly, the string would have required numbered fields such as:
+ ``'Sir {0} of {1}'``.
+
+ (Contributed by Eric Smith; :issue:`5237`.)
+
+* The :mod:`itertools` module grew two new functions. The
+ :func:`itertools.combinations_with_replacement` function is one of
+ four for generating combinatorics including permutations and Cartesian
+ products. The :func:`itertools.compress` function mimics its namesake
+ from APL. Also, the existing :func:`itertools.count` function now has
+ an optional *step* argument and can accept any type of counting
+ sequence including :class:`fractions.Fraction` and
+ :class:`decimal.Decimal`.
+
+ (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
+
.. ======================================================================
(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou, :issue:`4753`.)
+* Add a heuristic so that tuples and dicts containing only untrackable objects
+ are not tracked by the garbage collector. This can reduce the size of
+ collections and therefore the garbage collection overhead on long-running
+ programs, depending on their particular use of datatypes.
+
+ (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou, :issue:`4688`.)
+
XXX The JSON module is getting a C extension for speed.
.. ======================================================================