Add items

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
+
 
 .. % ======================================================================