| \documentclass{howto} |
| \usepackage{distutils} |
| % $Id$ |
| |
| |
| \title{What's New in Python 2.5} |
| \release{0.0} |
| \author{A.M. Kuchling} |
| \authoraddress{\email{amk@amk.ca}} |
| |
| \begin{document} |
| \maketitle |
| \tableofcontents |
| |
| This article explains the new features in Python 2.5. No release date |
| for Python 2.5 has been set; it will probably be released in late 2005. |
| |
| % Compare with previous release in 2 - 3 sentences here. |
| |
| This article doesn't attempt to provide a complete specification of |
| the new features, but instead provides a convenient overview. For |
| full details, you should refer to the documentation for Python 2.5. |
| % add hyperlink when the documentation becomes available online. |
| If you want to understand the complete implementation and design |
| rationale, refer to the PEP for a particular new feature. |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| |
| % Large, PEP-level features and changes should be described here. |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \section{Other Language Changes} |
| |
| Here are all of the changes that Python 2.5 makes to the core Python |
| language. |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item The \function{min()} and \function{max()} built-in functions |
| gained a \code{key} keyword argument analogous to the \code{key} |
| argument for \function{sort()}. This argument supplies a function |
| that takes a single argument and is called for every value in the list; |
| \function{min()}/\function{max()} will return the element with the |
| smallest/largest return value from this function. |
| For example, to find the longest string in a list, you can do: |
| |
| \begin{verbatim} |
| L = ['medium', 'longest', 'short'] |
| # Prints 'longest' |
| print max(L, key=len) |
| # Prints 'short', because lexicographically 'short' has the largest value |
| print max(L) |
| \end{verbatim} |
| |
| (Contributed by Steven Bethard and Raymond Hettinger.) |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \subsection{Optimizations} |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item Optimizations should be described here. |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| The net result of the 2.5 optimizations is that Python 2.5 runs the |
| pystone benchmark around XX\% faster than Python 2.4. |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \section{New, Improved, and Deprecated Modules} |
| |
| As usual, Python's standard library received a number of enhancements and |
| bug fixes. Here's a partial list of the most notable changes, sorted |
| alphabetically by module name. Consult the |
| \file{Misc/NEWS} file in the source tree for a more |
| complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the |
| details. |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item Descriptions go here. |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| % whole new modules get described in \subsections here |
| |
| |
| % ====================================================================== |
| \section{Build and C API Changes} |
| |
| Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include: |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item The \cfunction{PyRange_New()} function was removed. It was never documented, |
| never used in the core code, and had dangerously lax error checking. |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \subsection{Port-Specific Changes} |
| |
| Platform-specific changes go here. |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \section{Other Changes and Fixes \label{section-other}} |
| |
| As usual, there were a bunch of other improvements and bugfixes |
| scattered throughout the source tree. A search through the CVS change |
| logs finds there were XXX patches applied and YYY bugs fixed between |
| Python 2.4 and 2.5. Both figures are likely to be underestimates. |
| |
| Some of the more notable changes are: |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item Details go here. |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \section{Porting to Python 2.5} |
| |
| This section lists previously described changes that may require |
| changes to your code: |
| |
| \begin{itemize} |
| |
| \item Everything is all in the details! |
| |
| \end{itemize} |
| |
| |
| %====================================================================== |
| \section{Acknowledgements \label{acks}} |
| |
| The author would like to thank the following people for offering |
| suggestions, corrections and assistance with various drafts of this |
| article: . |
| |
| \end{document} |