-This is Python release 1.3
-==========================
+This is Python release 1.4 beta 1
+=================================
+
+It's a beta release. Only use this if you want to help me iron the
+last wrinkles out of the distribution before I release the real 1.4
+release. In particular, I'm interested in porting experiences to Unix
+boxes. It should build out of the box using "./configure; make".
+Also try running configue with the --with-thread and --with-readline
+options (described below).
What's new in this release?
---------------------------
-- Keyword parameters (see the last chapter of the tutorial).
-- Third argument to raise (the stacktrace to provide).
-- Faster function and method calls.
-- Jim Fulton's abstract object interface (Include/abstract.h).
-- Support for Tk 4.0 in Tkinter (Tkinter now supports keywords!).
-- Rewritten htmllib.py (HTML parser), with new formatter.py.
-- Rewritten rexec.py (restricted execution).
-- New modules ni.py and ihooks.py (package support and more).
-- And lots more that you'll have to discover on your own (see chapter
- 12 of the Tutorial or the Misc/NEWS file).
+XXX
What is Python anyway?
Python is an interpreted object-oriented programming language, and is
often compared to Tcl, Perl or Scheme. For a quick summary of what
-Python can mean for a UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ.
+Python can mean for a UNIX/C programmer, read Misc/BLURB.LUTZ. If you
+have web access, point your browser to <URL:http://www.python.org>.
If you don't read instructions
Troubleshooting
---------------
-If you run into trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for
-hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
+If recursive makes fail, try invoking make as "make MAKE=make".
+
+If you run into other trouble, see section 3 of the FAQ (file
+Misc/FAQ) for hints on what can go wrong, and how to fix it.
Platform specific notes
the Lib/linux1 directory. Apparently the files as distributed
don't match the system headers on some Linux versions.
-AIX: Read the file Misc/AIX-NOTES before trying to build.
+AIX: Read the files Misc/AIX-NOTES* before trying to build.
HP-UX: Read the file Misc/HPUX-NOTES if you want to be able to
use shared libraries for dynamically loaded modules.
install". To install the library as /usr/local/lib/python, type "make
libinstall". To install the manual page as
/usr/local/man/man1/python.1, type "make maninstall". To install the
-Emacs editing mode for python, manually copy the file
+Emacs editing mode for Python, manually copy the file
Misc/python-mode.el to your local Emacs lisp directory. The directory
/usr/local can be overridden at configuration time by passing
--prefix=DIRECTORY to the configure script, or at make time by passing
about the install prefix...
--with-readline: You can use the GNU readline library to improve the
- interactive user interface: this gives you line editing and
- command history when calling python interactively. You need
- to configure build the GNU readline library before running the
- configure script. Its sources are not distributed with
- Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror site, or from its
- home site:
+ interactive user interface. This gives you line editing and
+ command history when calling Python interactively. Unless GNU
+ readline is a standard part of your system (it is on Linux),
+ you need to configure build the GNU readline library before
+ running the configure script. Its sources are not distributed
+ with Python; you can ftp them from any GNU mirror site, or
+ from its home site:
<URL:ftp://slc2.ins.cwru.edu/pub/dist/readline-2.0.tar.gz> (or
a higher version number -- using version 1.x is not
recommended).
Pass the Python configure script the option
--with-readline=DIRECTORY where DIRECTORY is the absolute
pathname of the directory where you've built the readline
- library. Some hints on building and using the readline
- library are in the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ).
-
---with-thread: On SGI IRIX, and on Sun SOLARIS 2, you can use multiple
- threads. To enable this, pass --with-thread. In the
- Modules/Setup file, enable the thread module. (Threads aren't
- enabled automatically because there are run-time penalties
- when support for them is compiled in even if you don't use
- them.)
+ library. If GNU readline is a standard part of your system,
+ don't pass '=DIRECTORY'. Some hints on building and using the
+ readline library are in the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ).
+
+--with-thread: On most Unix systems, you can now use multiple threads.
+ To enable this, pass --with-thread. If the library required
+ for threads lives in a peculiar place, you can use
+ --with-thread=DIRECTORY. In the Modules/Setup file, enable
+ the thread module. (Threads aren't enabled automatically
+ because there are run-time penalties when support for them is
+ compiled in even if you don't use them.)
--with-sgi-dl: On SGI IRIX 4, dynamic loading of extension modules is
supported by the "dl" library by Jack Jansen, which is
ext.ps) to the printer. See the README file there.
All documentation is also available on-line via the World-Wide Web
-(WWW): <URL:http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/Python.html>. It can also be
-downloaded separately from the ftp archives (see below) in Emacs INFO,
-HTML or PostScript form -- see the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for more info.
+(WWW): <URL:http://www.python.org>. It can also be downloaded
+separately from the ftp archives (see below) in Emacs INFO, HTML or
+PostScript form -- see the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for more info.
Emacs mode
Ftp access
----------
-Python's "home ftp site" is ftp.cwi.nl, directory pub/python. See the
-FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for a list of other ftp sites carrying the Python
-distribution.
+Python's "home ftp site" is ftp.python.org, directory /pub/python.
+See the FAQ (file Misc/FAQ) for a list of other ftp sites carrying the
+Python distribution.
Newsgroup and mailing list
See the Build Instructions above for more details.
There is little documentation. Begin with fetching the "Tk Lifesaver"
-document, e.g. <URL:ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/python/doc/tkinter-doc.tar.gz>
-(a gzipped tar file containing a PostScript file). There are demos in
+document,
+e.g. <URL:ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/doc/tkinter-doc.tar.gz> (a
+gzipped tar file containing a PostScript file). There are demos in
the Demo/tkinter directory, in the subdirectories guido, matt and www.
Note that there's a Python module called "Tkinter" (capital T) which
----------------
Guido van Rossum
-CWI, dept. CST
-P.O. Box 94079
-1090 GB Amsterdam
-The Netherlands
+CNRI
+1895 Preston White Drive
+Reston, VA 22094
+USA
-E-mail: guido@cwi.nl
+E-mail: guido@python.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <mailto:guido@cwi.nl>
-<http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/>
+--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
projects / python / commitdiff