[Python-checkins] r59963 - python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst

Tue Jan 15 02:47:33 CET 2008

Author: andrew.kuchling
Date: Tue Jan 15 02:47:32 2008
New Revision: 59963
Modified:
 python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst
Log:
Add many items
Modified: python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst
==============================================================================

--- python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst	(original)
+++ python/trunk/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst	Tue Jan 15 02:47:32 2008
@@ -426,6 +426,29 @@
 
 .. ======================================================================
 
+.. ::
+
+ .. _pep-0370:
+
+ PEP 370: XXX
+ =====================================================
+
+ When you run Python, the module search page ``sys.modules`` usually
+ includes a directory whose path ends in ``"site-packages"``. This
+ directory is intended to hold locally-installed packages available to
+ all users on a machine or using a particular site installation.
+
+ Python 2.6 introduces a convention for user-specific site directories.
+
+ .. seealso::
+
+ :pep:`370` - XXX
+
+ PEP written by XXX; implemented by Christian Heimes.
+
+ 
+.. ======================================================================
+
 .. _pep-3110:
 
 PEP 3110: Exception-Handling Changes
@@ -650,6 +673,16 @@
 Optimizations
 -------------
 
+* Type objects now have a cache of methods that can reduc
+ the amount of work required to find the correct method implementation
+ for a particular class; the interpreter may not need to traverse base 
+ classes 
+
+ (Original optimization implemented by Armin Rigo, updated for 
+ Python 2.6 by Kevin Jacobs.) 
+
+ .. % Patch 1700288
+
 * All of the functions in the :mod:`struct` module have been rewritten in
 C, thanks to work at the Need For Speed sprint.
 (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
@@ -700,6 +733,11 @@
 >>> v2
 variable(id=1, name='amplitude', type='int', size=4)
 
+ Where the new :class:`namedtuple` type proved suitable, the standard
+ library has been modified to return them. For example, 
+ the :meth:`Decimal.as_tuple` method now returns a named tuple with 
+ :attr:`sign`, :attr:`digits`, and :attr:`exponent` fields.
+
 (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 * Another change to the :mod:`collections` module is that the 
@@ -758,7 +796,17 @@
 >>> Decimal(1000).log10()
 Decimal("3")
 
- (Implemented by Facundo Batista and Mark Dickinson.)
+ The :meth:`as_tuple` method of :class:`Decimal` objects now returns a 
+ named tuple with :attr:`sign`, :attr:`digits`, and :attr:`exponent` fields.
+ 
+ (Implemented by Facundo Batista and Mark Dickinson. Named tuple
+ support added by Raymond Hettinger.)
+
+* The :mod:`difflib` module's :class:`SequenceMatcher` class 
+ now returns named tuples representing matches. 
+ In addition to behaving like tuples, the returned values
+ also have :attr:`a`, :attr:`b`, and :attr:`size` attributes.
+ (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 * An optional ``timeout`` parameter was added to the
 :class:`ftplib.FTP` class constructor as well as the :meth:`connect`
@@ -795,6 +843,12 @@
 class constructors, specifying a timeout measured in seconds.
 (Added by Facundo Batista.)
 
+* Most of the :mod:`inspect` module's functions, such as 
+ :func:`getmoduleinfo` and :func:`getargs`, now return named tuples. 
+ In addition to behaving like tuples, the elements of the return value
+ can also be accessed as attributes.
+ (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
+
 * A new function in the :mod:`itertools` module: ``izip_longest(iter1, iter2,
 ...[, fillvalue])`` makes tuples from each of the elements; if some of the
 iterables are shorter than others, the missing values are set to *fillvalue*.
@@ -891,6 +945,13 @@
 
 .. Issue 1727780
 
+* Long regular expression searches carried out by the :mod:`re`
+ module will now check for signals being delivered, so especially
+ long searches can now be interrupted.
+ (Contributed by Josh Hoyt and Ralf Schmitt.)
+
+ .. % Patch 846388
+
 * The :mod:`rgbimg` module has been removed.
 
 * The :mod:`sets` module has been deprecated; it's better to 
@@ -934,6 +995,13 @@
 
 .. Patch #957003
 
+* The :mod:`socket` module now supports TIPC (http://tipc.sf.net),
+ a high-performance non-IP-based protocol designed for use in clustered
+ environments. TIPC addresses are 4- or 5-tuples.
+ (Contributed by Alberto Bertogli.)
+
+ .. Patch #1646
+ 
 * A new variable in the :mod:`sys` module,
 :attr:`float_info`, is an object
 containing information about the platform's floating-point support
@@ -945,6 +1013,21 @@
 
 .. Patch 1534
 
+ Information about the command-line arguments supplied to the Python 
+ interpreter are available as attributes of a ``sys.flags`` named 
+ tuple. For example, the :attr:`verbose` attribute is true if Python 
+ was executed in verbose mode, :attr:`debug` is true in debugging mode, etc.
+ These attributes are all read-only.
+ (Contributed by Christian Heimes.)
+
+ The :attr:`dont_write_bytecode` variable controls whether Python
+ writes any :file:`.pyc` or :file:`.pyo` files on importing a module.
+ If this variable is true, the compiled files are not written. The
+ variable can be set by Python code, by supplying the :option:`-B`
+ switch, or by setting the :envvar:`PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE`
+ environment variable to any non-empty string when running the Python
+ interpreter.
+
 * The :mod:`tarfile` module now supports POSIX.1-2001 (pax) and
 POSIX.1-1988 (ustar) format tarfiles, in addition to the GNU tar
 format that was already supported. The default format 
@@ -1061,6 +1144,22 @@
 information. (Contributed by Alan McIntyre as part of his 
 project for Google's Summer of Code 2007.)
 
+* The :mod:`zipfile` module's :class:`ZipFile` class now has 
+ :meth:`extract` and :meth:`extractall` methods that will unpack 
+ a single file or all the files in the archive to the current directory, or 
+ to a specified directory::
+
+ z = zipfile.ZipFile('python-251.zip')
+
+ # Unpack a single file, writing it relative to the /tmp directory.
+ z.extract('Python/sysmodule.c', '/tmp')
+
+ # Unpack all the files in the archive.
+ z.extractall()
+
+ (Contributed by Alan McIntyre.)
+ .. % Patch 467924
+
 .. ======================================================================
 .. whole new modules get described in subsections here
 
@@ -1143,7 +1242,12 @@
 value, as does the :func:`getwche` function. The :func:`putwch` function
 takes a Unicode character and writes it to the console.
 
-Platform-specific changes go here.
+* The :mod:`_winreg` module now has a function, 
+ :func:`ExpandEnvironmentStrings`, 
+ that expands environment variable references such as ``%NAME%``
+ in an input string. The handle objects provided by this
+ module now support the context protocol, so they can be used 
+ in :keyword:`with` statements.
 
 .. ======================================================================
 
@@ -1153,14 +1257,21 @@
 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 2.5 and 2.6. Both figures
-are likely to be underestimates.
+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 2.5 and 2.6. Both figures are likely to be underestimates.
 
 Some of the more notable changes are:
 
-* Details will go here.
+* It's now possible to prevent Python from writing any :file:`.pyc` 
+ or :file:`.pyo` files by either supplying the :option:`-B` switch
+ or setting the :envvar:`PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE` environment variable
+ to any non-empty string when running the Python interpreter. These
+ are used to set a :attr:`dont_write_bytecode` variable in the 
+ :mod:`sys` module. Python code can change this variable to 
+ control whether bytecode files are subsequently written.
+ (Contributed by Neal Norwitz and Georg Brandl.)
 
 .. ======================================================================
 
@@ -1177,6 +1288,19 @@
 before adding elements from the iterable. This change makes the
 behavior match that of ``list.__init__()``. 
 
+* The :class:`Decimal` constructor now accepts leading and trailing 
+ whitespace when passed a string. Previously it would raise an
+ :exc:`InvalidOperation` exception. On the other hand, the
+ :meth:`create_decimal` method of :class:`Context` objects now
+ explicitly disallows extra whitespace, raising a 
+ :exc:`ConversionSyntax` exception.
+
+* Due to an implementation accident, if you passed a file path to 
+ the built-in :func:`__import__` function, it would actually import
+ the specified file. This was never intended to work, however, and 
+ the implementation now explicitly checks for this case and raises 
+ an :exc:`ImportError`.
+
 * The :mod:`socket` module exception :exc:`socket.error` now inherits
 from :exc:`IOError`. Previously it wasn't a subclass of
 :exc:`StandardError` but now it is, through :exc:`IOError`.
