* Add various updates reflecting the last two weeks of checkins:
timeit, base64, MSVC++ 7.1 build, METH_COEXISTS, and optimizations.
* Put in a comment suggesting an improvement to the rsplit() example.
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
index 55af7bc..de06e9e 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
@@ -149,6 +149,14 @@
['a b', 'c']
\end{verbatim}
+% Consider replacing the above example with one that is less
+% abstract and more suggestive of why the function is useful:
+%
+% >>> 'www.python.org'.split('.', 1)
+% ['www', 'python.org']
+% >>> 'www.python.org'.rsplit('.', 1)
+% ['www.python', 'org']
+
\item The \method{sort()} method of lists gained three keyword
arguments, \var{cmp}, \var{key}, and \var{reverse}. These arguments
make some common usages of \method{sort()} simpler. All are optional.
@@ -259,7 +267,18 @@
\begin{itemize}
-\item Optimizations should be described here.
+\item \function{list()}, \function{tuple()}, \function{map()},
+ \function{filter()}, and \function{zip()} now run several times
+ faster with non-sequence arguments that supply a \method{__len__()}
+ method. Previously, the pre-sizing optimization only applied to
+ sequence arguments.
+
+\item The unbound methods \method{list.__getitem__()},
+ \method{dict.__getitem__()}, and \method{dict.__contains__()} are
+ are now implemented as \class{method_descriptor} objects rather
+ than \class{wrapper_descriptor} objects. This form of optimized
+ access doubles their performance and makes them more suitable for
+ use as arguments to functionals: \samp{map(dict.__contains__, mydict)}.
\end{itemize}
@@ -423,13 +442,22 @@
fast dictionary lookups without masking exceptions raised during the
look-up process.
+ \item A new method flag, \code{METH_COEXISTS}, allows a function
+ defined in slots to co-exist with a PyCFunction having the same name.
+ This can halve the access to time to a method such as
+ \method{set.__contains__()}
+
\end{itemize}
%======================================================================
\subsection{Port-Specific Changes}
-Platform-specific changes go here.
+\begin{itemize}
+
+\item The Windows port now builds under MSVC++ 7.1 as well as version 6.
+
+\end{itemize}
%======================================================================
@@ -444,7 +472,14 @@
\begin{itemize}
-\item Details go here.
+\item The \module{timeit} module now automatically disables periodic
+ garbarge collection during the timing loop. This change makes
+ consecutive timings more comparable.
+
+\item The \module{base64} module now has more complete RFC 3548 support
+ for Base64, Base32, and Base16 encoding and decoding, including
+ optional case folding and optional alternative alphabets.
+ (Contributed by Barry Warsaw.)
\end{itemize}