| =================================== |
| ==> Release 1.2 <== |
| =================================== |
| |
| |
| - Most known bugs have been fixed. For example the pow(2,2,3L) bug on |
| Linux has been fixed. Also the re-entrancy problems with __del__ have |
| been fixed. |
| |
| - Most known memory leaks have been fixed. |
| |
| - Phase 2 of the Great Renaming has been executed. The header files |
| now use the new names (PyObject instead of object, etc.). The linker |
| also sees the new names. Most source files still use the old names, |
| by virtue of the rename2.h header file. If you include Python.h, you |
| only see the new names. Dynamically linked modules have to be |
| recompiled. |
| |
| - The hooks for implementing "safe-python" (better called "restricted |
| execution") are in place. Specifically, the import statement is |
| implemented by calling the built-in function __import__, and the |
| built-in names used in a particular scope are taken from the |
| dictionary __builtins__ in that scope's global dictionary. See also |
| the new module rexec.py. |
| |
| - The import statement now supports the syntax "import a.b.c" and |
| "from a.b.c import name". No meaningful implementation exists, but |
| one can be prototyped by replacing the built-in __import__ function. |
| |
| - All machinery used by the import statement (or the built-in |
| __import__ function) is now exposed through the new built-in module |
| "imp". All dynamic loading machinery is moved to the new file |
| importdl.c. |
| |
| - Persistent storage is supported through the use of the module |
| "pickle" and "shelve" (implemented in Python). Read the .py files for |
| more info. There's also a "copy" module implementing deepcopy and |
| normal (shallow) copy operations. |
| |
| - Documentation strings for many objects types are accessible through |
| the __doc__ attribute. Modules, classes and functions support special |
| syntax to initialize the __doc__ attribute: if the first statement |
| consists of just a string literal, that string literal becomes the |
| value of the __doc__ attribute. The default __doc__ attribute is |
| None. Documentation strings are also supported for built-in |
| functions, types and modules; however this feature hasn't been widely |
| used yet. See the 'new' module for an example. |
| |
| - The __coerce__ and __cmp__ methods for user-defined classes once |
| again work as expected. As an example, there's a new standard class |
| Complex in the library. |
| |
| - The functions posix.popen() and posix.fdopen() now have an optional |
| third argument to specify the buffer size, and default their second |
| (mode) argument to 'r' -- in analogy to the builtin open() function. |
| |
| - Improved support for the Apple Macintosh, e.g. interfaces to (a few) |
| resource mananger functions, get/set file type and creator, gestalt, |
| sound manager, speech manager, MacTCP, comm toolbox, and the think C |
| console library. (Sorry, no Mac binary yet. Will try to produce one |
| shortly, plus instructions on how to compile with THINK C 6.0.) |
| |
| - Used autoconf 2.0 to generate the configure script. Adapted |
| configure.in to use the new features in autoconf 2.0. |
| |
| |
| --Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl> |
| URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html> |