| Guido van Rossum | 635649f | 1994-11-10 23:04:51 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | =================================== |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 2 | ==> Release 1.2 <== |
| Guido van Rossum | 635649f | 1994-11-10 23:04:51 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 3 | =================================== |
| 4 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 635649f | 1994-11-10 23:04:51 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 5 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 6 | - Most known bugs have been fixed. For example the pow(2,2,3L) bug on |
| 7 | Linux has been fixed. Also the re-entrancy problems with __del__ have |
| 8 | been fixed. |
| Guido van Rossum | 635649f | 1994-11-10 23:04:51 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 10 | - Most known memory leaks have been fixed. |
| Guido van Rossum | 635649f | 1994-11-10 23:04:51 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 12 | - Phase 2 of the Great Renaming has been executed. The header files |
| 13 | now use the new names (PyObject instead of object, etc.). The linker |
| 14 | also sees the new names. Most source files still use the old names, |
| 15 | by virtue of the rename2.h header file. If you include Python.h, you |
| 16 | only see the new names. Dynamically linked modules have to be |
| 17 | recompiled. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 18 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 19 | - The hooks for implementing "safe-python" (better called "restricted |
| 20 | execution") are in place. Specifically, the import statement is |
| 21 | implemented by calling the built-in function __import__, and the |
| 22 | built-in names used in a particular scope are taken from the |
| 23 | dictionary __builtins__ in that scope's global dictionary. See also |
| 24 | the new module rexec.py. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 25 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 26 | - The import statement now supports the syntax "import a.b.c" and |
| 27 | "from a.b.c import name". No meaningful implementation exists, but |
| 28 | one can be prototyped by replacing the built-in __import__ function. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 29 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | - All machinery used by the import statement (or the built-in |
| 31 | __import__ function) is now exposed through the new built-in module |
| 32 | "imp". All dynamic loading machinery is moved to the new file |
| 33 | importdl.c. |
| Guido van Rossum | ac5a4e3 | 1994-10-11 15:04:57 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 35 | - Persistent storage is supported through the use of the module |
| 36 | "pickle" and "shelve" (implemented in Python). Read the .py files for |
| 37 | more info. There's also a "copy" module implementing deepcopy and |
| 38 | normal (shallow) copy operations. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 39 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 40 | - Documentation strings for many objects types are accessible through |
| 41 | the __doc__ attribute. Modules, classes and functions support special |
| 42 | syntax to initialize the __doc__ attribute: if the first statement |
| 43 | consists of just a string literal, that string literal becomes the |
| 44 | value of the __doc__ attribute. The default __doc__ attribute is |
| 45 | None. Documentation strings are also supported for built-in |
| 46 | functions, types and modules; however this feature hasn't been widely |
| 47 | used yet. See the 'new' module for an example. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 48 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 49 | - The __coerce__ and __cmp__ methods for user-defined classes once |
| 50 | again work as expected. As an example, there's a new standard class |
| 51 | Complex in the library. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 52 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 53 | - The functions posix.popen() and posix.fdopen() now have an optional |
| 54 | third argument to specify the buffer size, and default their second |
| 55 | (mode) argument to 'r' -- in analogy to the builtin open() function. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 56 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 57 | - Improved support for the Apple Macintosh, e.g. interfaces to (a few) |
| 58 | resource mananger functions, get/set file type and creator, gestalt, |
| 59 | sound manager, speech manager, MacTCP, comm toolbox, and the think C |
| 60 | console library. (Sorry, no Mac binary yet. Will try to produce one |
| 61 | shortly, plus instructions on how to compile with THINK C 6.0.) |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 62 | |
| Guido van Rossum | 5426ab3 | 1995-01-17 17:00:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 63 | - Used autoconf 2.0 to generate the configure script. Adapted |
| 64 | configure.in to use the new features in autoconf 2.0. |
| Guido van Rossum | 061f182 | 1994-10-06 16:03:45 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 65 | |
| 66 | |
| Guido van Rossum | a85d053 | 1994-01-26 17:24:14 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 67 | --Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl> |
| 68 | URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html> |