Present each feature in terms of what makes it useful or desirable.
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
index 402fb3e..68742a8 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
@@ -79,8 +79,8 @@
\var{key} should be a single-argument function that takes a list
element and returns a comparison key for the element. The list is
-then sorted using the comparison keys. The following example sorts a list
-case-insensitively:
+then sorted using the comparison keys. The following example sorts a
+list case-insensitively:
\begin{verbatim}
>>> L = ['A', 'b', 'c', 'D']
@@ -101,31 +101,71 @@
\method{lower()} method once for each element in the list while using
\var{cmp} will call the method twice for each comparison.
+Note, for simple key functions and comparison functions, it is often
+possible to avoid the \keyword{lambda} expression by using an unbound
+method instead. For example, the above case-insensitive sort is best
+coded as:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> L.sort(key=str.lower)
+>>> L
+['A', 'b', 'c', 'D']
+\end{verbatim}
+
The \var{reverse} parameter should have a Boolean value. If the value is
\constant{True}, the list will be sorted into reverse order. Instead
-of \code{L.sort() ; L.reverse()}, you can now write
-\code{L.sort(reverse=True)}.
+of \code{L.sort(lambda x,y: cmp(y.score, x.score))}, you can now write:
+\code{L.sort(key = lambda x: x.score, reverse=True)}.
-\item The list type gained a \method{sorted(iterable)} method that
-returns the elements of the iterable as a sorted list. It also accepts
-the \var{cmp}, \var{key}, and \var{reverse} keyword arguments, same as
-the \method{sort()} method. An example usage:
+The results of sorting are now guaranteed to be stable. This means that
+two entries with equal keys will be returned in the same order as
+they were input.
+
+
+\item The list type gained a \method{sorted(iterable)} method that works
+like the in-place \method{sort()} method but has been made suitable for
+use in expressions. The differences are:
+ \begin{itemize}
+ \item the input make be any iterable;
+ \item a copy is sorted, leaving the original intact; and
+ \item the expression returns the new sorted copy
+ \end{itemize}
\begin{verbatim}
>>> L = [9,7,8,3,2,4,1,6,5]
->>> list.sorted(L)
-[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
->>> L
-[9, 7, 8, 3, 2, 4, 1, 6, 5]
->>>
+>>> [10+i for i in list.sorted(L)] # usable in a list comprehension
+[11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19]
+>>> L = [9,7,8,3,2,4,1,6,5] # original is left unchanged
+[9,7,8,3,2,4,1,6,5]
+>>> list.sorted('Monte Python') # any iterable may be an input
+[' ', 'M', 'P', 'e', 'h', 'n', 'n', 'o', 'o', 't', 't', 'y']
+>>> colormap = dict(red=1, blue=2, green=3, black=4, yellow=5)
+>>> for k, v in list.sorted(colormap.iteritems()):
+... print k, v
+...
+black 4
+blue 2
+green 3
+red 1
+yellow 5
+
\end{verbatim}
-Note that the original list is unchanged; the list returned by
-\method{sorted()} is a newly-created one.
-\item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()} now return an empty list
- instead of raising a \exception{TypeError} exception if called
- with no arguments.
+\item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()}
+ now return an empty list instead of raising a \exception{TypeError}
+ exception if called with no arguments. This makes the functions more
+ suitable for use with variable length argument lists:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> def transpose(array):
+... return zip(*array)
+...
+>>> transpose([(1,2,3), (4,5,6)])
+[(1, 4), (2, 5), (3, 6)]
+>>> transpose([])
+[]
+\end{verbatim}
\end{itemize}
@@ -161,11 +201,15 @@
supports transparency, this makes it possible to use a transparent background.
(Contributed by J\"org Lehmann.)
-\item The \module{heapq} module is no longer implemented in Python,
- having been converted into C.
+\item The \module{heapq} module has been converted to C. The resulting
+ ten-fold improvement in speed makes the module suitable for handling
+ high volumes of data.
\item The \module{random} module has a new method called \method{getrandbits(N)}
- which returns an N-bit long integer.
+ which returns an N-bit long integer. This method supports the existing
+ \method{randrange()} method, making it possible to efficiently generate
+ arbitrarily large random numbers (suitable for prime number generation in
+ RSA applications).
\item The regular expression language accepted by the \module{re} module
was extended with simple conditional expressions, written as
@@ -231,9 +275,9 @@
\begin{itemize}
-\item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()} now return an empty list
- instead of raising a \exception{TypeError} exception if called
- with no arguments.
+\item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()}
+ now return an empty list instead of raising a \exception{TypeError}
+ exception if called with no arguments.
\item \function{dircache.listdir()} now passes exceptions to the caller
instead of returning empty lists.