Doc/whatsnew/3.0.rst

****************************
  What's New in Python 3.0  
****************************

:Author: A.M. Kuchling

.. |release| replace:: 0.0

.. % $Id: whatsnew26.tex 55506 2007-05-22 07:43:29Z neal.norwitz $
.. % Rules for maintenance:
.. % 
.. % * Anyone can add text to this document.  Do not spend very much time
.. % on the wording of your changes, because your text will probably
.. % get rewritten to some degree.
.. % 
.. % * The maintainer will go through Misc/NEWS periodically and add
.. % changes; it's therefore more important to add your changes to
.. % Misc/NEWS than to this file.
.. % 
.. % * This is not a complete list of every single change; completeness
.. % is the purpose of Misc/NEWS.  Some changes I consider too small
.. % or esoteric to include.  If such a change is added to the text,
.. % I'll just remove it.  (This is another reason you shouldn't spend
.. % too much time on writing your addition.)
.. % 
.. % * If you want to draw your new text to the attention of the
.. % maintainer, add 'XXX' to the beginning of the paragraph or
.. % section.
.. % 
.. % * It's OK to just add a fragmentary note about a change.  For
.. % example: "XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the
.. % socket module."  The maintainer will research the change and
.. % write the necessary text.
.. % 
.. % * You can comment out your additions if you like, but it's not
.. % necessary (especially when a final release is some months away).
.. % 
.. % * Credit the author of a patch or bugfix.   Just the name is
.. % sufficient; the e-mail address isn't necessary.
.. % 
.. % * It's helpful to add the bug/patch number as a comment:
.. % 
.. % % Patch 12345
.. % XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the socket
.. % module.
.. % (Contributed by P.Y. Developer.)
.. % 
.. % This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the SVN log
.. % when researching a change.

This article explains the new features in Python 3.0.  No release date for
Python 3.0 has been set; it will probably be released in mid 2008.

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 3.0. If you want to understand the
complete implementation and design rationale, refer to the PEP for a particular
new feature.

.. % Compare with previous release in 2 - 3 sentences here.
.. % add hyperlink when the documentation becomes available online.

.. % ======================================================================
.. % Large, PEP-level features and changes should be described here.
.. % Should there be a new section here for 3k migration?
.. % Or perhaps a more general section describing module changes/deprecation?
.. % sets module deprecated
.. % ======================================================================


Other Language Changes
======================

Here are all of the changes that Python 2.6 makes to the core Python language.

* Detailed changes are listed here.

.. % ======================================================================


Optimizations
-------------

* Detailed changes are listed here.

The net result of the 3.0 optimizations is that Python 3.0 runs the pystone
benchmark around XX% slower than Python 2.6.

.. % ======================================================================


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.

* Detailed changes are listed here.

.. % ======================================================================
.. % whole new modules get described in \subsections here

.. % ======================================================================


Build and C API Changes
=======================

Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:

* Detailed changes are listed here.

.. % ======================================================================


Port-Specific Changes
---------------------

Platform-specific changes go here.

.. % ======================================================================


.. _section-other:

Other Changes and Fixes
=======================

As usual, there were a bunch of other improvements and bugfixes scattered
throughout the source tree.  A search through the change logs finds there were
XXX patches applied and YYY bugs fixed between Python 2.6 and 3.0.  Both figures
are likely to be underestimates.

Some of the more notable changes are:

* Details go here.

.. % ======================================================================


Porting to Python 3.0
=====================

This section lists previously described changes that may require changes to your
code:

* Everything is all in the details!

.. % ======================================================================


.. _acks:

Acknowledgements
================

The author would like to thank the following people for offering suggestions,
corrections and assistance with various drafts of this article: .