bpo-32892: Update the documentation for handling constants in AST. (GH-18514)
diff --git a/Doc/library/ast.rst b/Doc/library/ast.rst
index 2cee873..bfd571d 100644
--- a/Doc/library/ast.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/ast.rst
@@ -101,12 +101,16 @@
node = ast.UnaryOp(ast.USub(), ast.Constant(5, lineno=0, col_offset=0),
lineno=0, col_offset=0)
+.. versionchanged:: 3.8
+
+ Class :class:`ast.Constant` is now used for all constants.
+
.. deprecated:: 3.8
- Class :class:`ast.Constant` is now used for all constants. Old classes
- :class:`ast.Num`, :class:`ast.Str`, :class:`ast.Bytes`,
+ Old classes :class:`ast.Num`, :class:`ast.Str`, :class:`ast.Bytes`,
:class:`ast.NameConstant` and :class:`ast.Ellipsis` are still available,
- but they will be removed in future Python releases.
+ but they will be removed in future Python releases. In the meanwhile,
+ instantiating them will return an instance of a different class.
.. _abstract-grammar:
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst
index cb4c518..09047c4 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst
@@ -1940,6 +1940,12 @@
:exc:`dbm.gnu.error` or :exc:`dbm.ndbm.error`) instead of :exc:`KeyError`.
(Contributed by Xiang Zhang in :issue:`33106`.)
+* Simplified AST for literals. All constants will be represented as
+ :class:`ast.Constant` instances. Instantiating old classes ``Num``,
+ ``Str``, ``Bytes``, ``NameConstant`` and ``Ellipsis`` will return
+ an instance of ``Constant``.
+ (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`32892`.)
+
* :func:`~os.path.expanduser` on Windows now prefers the :envvar:`USERPROFILE`
environment variable and does not use :envvar:`HOME`, which is not normally
set for regular user accounts.