| ================================ |
| ==> Release 1.1 (6 Oct 1994) <== |
| ================================ |
| |
| This release adds several new features, improved configuration and |
| portability, and more fixed bugs than I can list here (including some |
| memory leaks). |
| |
| The source compiles and runs out of the box on more platforms than |
| ever -- including Windows NT. Makefiles or projects for a variety of |
| non-UNIX platforms are provided. |
| |
| Apology: many new features are badly documented or not at all. I had |
| the choice -- postpone the new release indefinitely, or release it |
| now, with working code but some undocumented areas... |
| |
| |
| New language features: |
| |
| - More flexible operator overloading for user-defined classes |
| (INCOMPATIBLE WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS!) See end of tutorial. |
| |
| - Classes can define methods named __getattr__, __setattr__ and |
| __delattr__ to trap attribute accesses. See end of tutorial. |
| |
| - Classes can define method __call__ so instances can be called |
| directly. See end of tutorial. |
| |
| |
| New support facilities: |
| |
| - The Makefiles (for the base interpreter as well as for extensions) |
| now support creating dynamically loadable modules if the platform |
| supports shared libraries. |
| |
| - Passing the interpreter a .pyc file as script argument will execute |
| the code in that file. (On the Mac such files can be double-clicked!) |
| |
| - New Freeze script, to create independently distributable "binaries" |
| of Python programs -- look in Demo/freeze |
| |
| - Improved h2py script (in Demo/scripts) follows #includes and |
| supports macros with one argument |
| |
| - New module compileall generates .pyc files for all modules in a |
| directory (tree) without also executing them |
| |
| - Threads should work on more platforms |
| |
| |
| New built-in modules: |
| |
| - tkinter (support for Tcl's Tk widget set) is now part of the base |
| distribution |
| |
| - signal allows catching or ignoring UNIX signals (unfortunately still |
| undocumented -- any taker?) |
| |
| - termios provides portable access to POSIX tty settings |
| |
| - curses provides an interface to the System V curses library |
| |
| - syslog provides an interface to the (BSD?) syslog daemon |
| |
| - 'new' provides interfaces to create new built-in object types |
| (e.g. modules and functions) |
| |
| - sybase provides an interface to SYBASE database |
| |
| |
| New/obsolete built-in methods: |
| |
| - callable(x) tests whether x can be called |
| |
| - sockets now have a setblocking() method |
| |
| - sockets no longer have an allowbroadcast() method |
| |
| - socket methods send() and sendto() return byte count |
| |
| |
| New standard library modules: |
| |
| - types.py defines standard names for built-in types, e.g. StringType |
| |
| - urlparse.py parses URLs according to the latest Internet draft |
| |
| - uu.py does uuencode/uudecode (not the fastest in the world, but |
| quicker than installing uuencode on a non-UNIX machine :-) |
| |
| - New, faster and more powerful profile module.py |
| |
| - mhlib.py provides interface to MH folders and messages |
| |
| |
| New facilities for extension writers (unfortunately still |
| undocumented): |
| |
| - newgetargs() supports optional arguments and improved error messages |
| |
| - O!, O& O? formats for getargs allow more versatile type checking of |
| non-standard types |
| |
| - can register pending asynchronous callback, to be called the next |
| time the Python VM begins a new instruction (Py_AddPendingCall) |
| |
| - can register cleanup routines to be called when Python exits |
| (Py_AtExit) |
| |
| - makesetup script understands C++ files in Setup file (use file.C |
| or file.cc) |
| |
| - Make variable OPT is passed on to sub-Makefiles |
| |
| - An init<module>() routine may signal an error by not entering |
| the module in the module table and raising an exception instead |
| |
| - For long module names, instead of foobarbletchmodule.c you can |
| use foobarbletch.c |
| |
| - getintvalue() and getfloatvalue() try to convert any object |
| instead of requiring an "intobject" or "floatobject" |
| |
| - All the [new]getargs() formats that retrieve an integer value |
| will now also work if a float is passed |
| |
| - C function listtuple() converts list to tuple, fast |
| |
| - You should now call sigcheck() instead of intrcheck(); |
| sigcheck() also sets an exception when it returns nonzero |
| |
| |
| --Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl> |
| URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html> |