Trim whitespace; add a few updates

Doc/whatsnew/2.6.rst

@@ -1436,6 +1436,18 @@ Here are all of the changes that Python 2.6 makes to the core Python language.
 
   (Contributed by Alexander Belopolsky; :issue:`1686487`.)
 
+  It's also now legal to provide keyword arguments after a ``*args`` argument
+  to a function call.
+
+    >>> def f(*args, **kw):
+    ...     print args, kw
+    ...
+    >>> f(1,2,3, *(4,5,6), keyword=13)
+    (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) {'keyword': 13}
+
+  Previously this would have been a syntax error.
+  (Contributed by Amaury Forgeot d'Arc; :issue:`3473`.)
+
 * A new built-in, ``next(*iterator*, [*default*])`` returns the next item
   from the specified iterator.  If the *default* argument is supplied,
   it will be returned if *iterator* has been exhausted; otherwise,
@@ -1645,6 +1657,17 @@ Optimizations
   (Original optimization implemented by Armin Rigo, updated for
   Python 2.6 by Kevin Jacobs; :issue:`1700288`.)
 
+  By default, this change is only applied to types that are included with
+  the Python core.  Extension modules may not necessarily be compatible with
+  this cache,
+  so they must explicitly add :cmacro:`Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_VERSION_TAG`
+  to the module's ``tp_flags`` field to enable the method cache.
+  (To be compatible with the method cache, the extension module's code
+  must not directly access and modify the ``tp_dict`` member of
+  any of the types it implements.  Most modules don't do this,
+  but it's impossible for the Python interpreter to determine that.
+  See :issue:`1878` for some discussion.)
+
 * Function calls that use keyword arguments
   are significantly faster thanks to a patch that does a quick pointer
   comparison, usually saving the time of a full string comparison.
@@ -2246,6 +2269,13 @@ details.
   time-consuming searches can now be interrupted.
   (Contributed by Josh Hoyt and Ralf Schmitt; :issue:`846388`.)
 
+  The regular expression module is implemented by compiling bytecodes
+  for a tiny regex-specific virtual machine.  Untrusted code
+  could create malicious strings of bytecode directly and cause crashes,
+  so Python 2.6 includes a verifier for the regex bytecode.
+  (Contributed by Guido van Rossum from work for Google App Engine;
+  :issue:`3487`.)
+
 * The :mod:`rgbimg` module has been removed.
 
 * The :mod:`rlcompleter` module's :meth:`Completer.complete()` method
@@ -2487,8 +2517,17 @@ details.
 
   (Contributed by Dwayne Bailey; :issue:`1581073`.)
 
-* The :mod:`threading` module's :class:`Thread` objects 
-  gained a :meth:`getIdent` method that returns the thread's 
+* The :mod:`threading` module API is being changed for Python 3.0, to
+  use properties such as :attr:`daemon` instead of :meth:`setDaemon`
+  and :meth:`isDaemon` methods, and some methods have been renamed to
+  use underscores instead of camel-case; for example, the
+  :meth:`activeCount` method is renamed to :meth:`active_count`.  The
+  2.6 version of the module supports the same properties and renamed
+  methods, but doesn't remove the old methods.  (Carried out by
+  various people, most notably Benjamin Peterson.)
+
+  The :mod:`threading` module's :class:`Thread` objects
+  gained an :attr:`ident` property that returns the thread's
   identifier, a nonzero integer.  (Contributed by Gregory P. Smith;
   :issue:`2871`.)