cpython/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst

****************************
  What's New In Python 3.7
****************************

:Release: |release|
:Date: |today|

.. 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:

   XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the socket
   module.
   (Contributed by P.Y. Developer in :issue:`12345`.)

   This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the Mercurial log
   when researching a change.

This article explains the new features in Python 3.7, compared to 3.6.

For full details, see the :ref:`changelog <changelog>`.

.. note::

   Prerelease users should be aware that this document is currently in draft
   form. It will be updated substantially as Python 3.7 moves towards release,
   so it's worth checking back even after reading earlier versions.


Summary -- Release highlights
=============================

.. This section singles out the most important changes in Python 3.7.
   Brevity is key.


.. PEP-sized items next.



New Features
============



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

* More than 255 arguments can now be passed to a function, and a function can
  now have more than 255 parameters.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`12844` and :issue:`18896`.)

* :meth:`bytes.fromhex` and :meth:`bytearray.fromhex` now ignore all ASCII
  whitespace, not only spaces.
  (Contributed by Robert Xiao in :issue:`28927`.)


New Modules
===========

* None yet.


Improved Modules
================

unittest.mock
-------------

The :const:`~unittest.mock.sentinel` attributes now preserve their identity
when they are :mod:`copied <copy>` or :mod:`pickled <pickle>`.
(Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`20804`.)


Optimizations
=============

* Added two new opcodes: ``LOAD_METHOD`` and ``CALL_METHOD`` to avoid
  instantiation of bound method objects for method calls, which results
  in method calls being faster up to 20%.
  (Contributed by Yury Selivanov and INADA Naoki in :issue:`26110`.)


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

* A full copy of libffi is no longer bundled for use when building the
  :mod:`_ctypes <ctypes>` module on non-OSX UNIX platforms.  An installed copy
  of libffi is now required when building ``_ctypes`` on such platforms.
  Contributed by Zachary Ware in :issue:`27979`.

* The fields :c:member:`name` and :c:member:`doc` of structures
  :c:type:`PyMemberDef`, :c:type:`PyGetSetDef`,
  :c:type:`PyStructSequence_Field`, :c:type:`PyStructSequence_Desc`,
  and :c:type:`wrapperbase` are now of type ``const char *`` rather of
  ``char *``.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`28761`.)


Deprecated
==========



Removed
=======

API and Feature Removals
------------------------

* Unknown escapes consisting of ``'\'`` and an ASCII letter in replacement
  templates for :func:`re.sub` will now cause an error.

* Removed support of the *exclude* argument in :meth:`tarfile.TarFile.add`.
  Use the *filter* argument instead.

* The ``splitunc()`` function in the :mod:`ntpath` module was deprecated in
  Python 3.1, and has now been removed.  Use the :func:`~os.path.splitdrive`
  function instead.


Porting to Python 3.7
=====================

This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes
that may require changes to your code.


Changes in the Python API
-------------------------

* A format string argument for :meth:`string.Formatter.format`
  is now :ref:`positional-only <positional-only_parameter>`.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29193`.)

* Attributes :attr:`~http.cookies.Morsel.key`,
  :attr:`~http.cookies.Morsel.value` and
  :attr:`~http.cookies.Morsel.coded_value` of class
  :class:`http.cookies.Morsel` are now read-only.
  Use the :meth:`~http.cookies.Morsel.set` method for setting them.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29192`.)