diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst index a5d681ce9d8..a2ce08a783f 100644 --- a/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst +++ b/Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst @@ -515,6 +515,12 @@ 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. +* The :mod:`bsddb.dbshelve` module now uses the highest pickling protocol + available, instead of restricting itself to protocol 1. + (Contributed by W. Barnes.) + + .. % Patch 1551443 + * A new data type in the :mod:`collections` module: :class:`named_tuple(typename, fieldnames)` is a factory function that creates subclasses of the standard tuple whose fields are accessible by name as well as index. For example:: @@ -531,17 +537,48 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. 1 1 >>> print var[2], var.type # Equivalent int int + >>> var.__asdict__() + {'size': 4, 'type': 'int', 'id': 1, 'name': 'frequency'} >>> v2 = var.__replace__('name', 'amplitude') >>> v2 variable(id=1, name='amplitude', type='int', size=4) (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) +* Another change to the :mod:`collections` module is that the + :class:`deque` type now supports an optional `maxlen` parameter; + if supplied, the deque's size will be restricted to no more + than ``maxlen`` items. Adding more items to a full deque causes + old items to be discarded. + + :: + + >>> from collections import deque + >>> dq=deque(maxlen=3) + >>> dq + deque([], maxlen=3) + >>> dq.append(1) ; dq.append(2) ; dq.append(3) + >>> dq + deque([1, 2, 3], maxlen=3) + >>> dq.append(4) + >>> dq + deque([2, 3, 4], maxlen=3) + + (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) + * The :mod:`ctypes` module now supports a :class:`c_bool` datatype that represents the C99 ``bool`` type. (Contributed by David Remahl.) .. % Patch 1649190 + The :mod:`ctypes` string, buffer and array types also have improved + support for extended slicing syntax, + where various combinations of ``(start, stop, step)`` are supplied. + (Implemented by Thomas Wouters.) + + .. % Revision 57769 + + * A new method in the :mod:`curses` module: for a window, :meth:`chgat` changes the display characters for a certain number of characters on a single line. :: @@ -626,6 +663,12 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. .. % Patch 1273829 +* The ``os.environ`` object's :meth:`clear` method will now unset the + environment variables using :func:`os.unsetenv` in addition to clearing + the object's keys. (Contributed by XXX.) + + .. % Patch #1181 + * In the :mod:`os.path` module, the :func:`splitext` function has been changed to not split on leading period characters. This produces better results when operating on Unix's dot-files. @@ -799,7 +842,13 @@ Build and C API Changes Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include: -* Detailed changes will be listed here. +* The BerkeleyDB module now has a C API object, available as + ``bsddb.db.api``. This object can be used by other C extensions + that wish to use the :mod:`bsddb` module for their own purposes. + (Contributed by Duncan Grisby.) + + .. % Patch 1551895 + .. % ======================================================================