Doc/whatsnew/3.1.rst

****************************
  What's New In Python 3.1
****************************

.. XXX Add trademark info for Apple, Microsoft.

:Author: No one so far
:Release: |release|
:Date: |today|

.. $Id$
   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.  (Note: I didn't get to this for 3.0.
   GvR.)

   * 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.  (Due to time
   constraints I haven't managed to do this for 3.0.  GvR.)

   * 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.  (Again, I didn't get to this for 3.0.
   GvR.)

This article explains the new features in Python 3.1, compared to 3.0.

.. 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
======================

Some smaller changes made to the core Python language are:

* The :func:`int` type gained a ``bit_length`` method that returns the
  number of bits necessary to represent its argument in binary::

      >>> n = 37
      >>> bin(37)
      '0b100101'
      >>> n.bit_length()
      6
      >>> n = 2**123-1
      >>> n.bit_length()
      123
      >>> (n+1).bit_length()
      124

  (Contributed by Fredrik Johansson and Victor Stinner; :issue:`3439`.)


.. ======================================================================