From 74d18ed07666434853b0241f5dc3fd2be96ae203 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Andrew M. Kuchling" Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 22:22:40 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Cover pydoc Update reference Python version to beta1 Rip out PEP 232 section Add placeholders for PEP 236 and 235 Fix erroneous \filename references --- Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex | 92 ++++++++++++++++++------------------- 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex index 9127ffeff0d..be289f10e34 100644 --- a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex +++ b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ {\large This document is a draft, and is subject to change until the final version of Python 2.1 is released. Currently it is up to date -for Python 2.1 alpha 2. Please send any comments, bug reports, or +for Python 2.1 beta 1. Please send any comments, bug reports, or questions, no matter how minor, to \email{amk1@bigfoot.com}. } It's that time again... time for a new Python release, version 2.1. @@ -136,44 +136,9 @@ Jeremy Hylton.} %====================================================================== -\section{PEP 232: Function Attributes} +\section{PEP 236: \module{__future__} Directives} -In Python 2.1, functions can now have arbitrary information attached -to them. People were often using docstrings to hold information about -functions and methods, because the \code{__doc__} attribute was the -only way of attaching any information to a function. For example, in -the Zope Web application server, functions are marked as safe for -public access by having a docstring, and in John Aycock's SPARK -parsing framework, docstrings hold parts of the BNF grammar to be -parsed. This overloading is unfortunate, since docstrings are really -intended to hold a function's documentation, and it means you can't -properly document functions intended for private use in Zope. - -Attributes can now be set and retrieved on functions, using the -regular Python syntax: - -\begin{verbatim} -def f(): pass - -f.publish = 1 -f.secure = 1 -f.grammar = "A ::= B (C D)*" -\end{verbatim} - -The dictionary containing attributes can be accessed as -\member{__dict__}. Unlike the \member{__dict__} attribute of class -instances, in functions you can actually assign a new dictionary to -\member{__dict__}, though the new value is restricted to a regular -Python dictionary; you can't be tricky and set it to a -\class{UserDict} instance, a DBM file, or any other random mapping -object. - -\begin{seealso} - -\seepep{232}{Function Attributes}{Written and implemented by Barry -Warsaw.} - -\end{seealso} +XXX %====================================================================== \section{PEP 207: Rich Comparisons} @@ -461,6 +426,11 @@ Fred~L. Drake,~Jr.} \end{seealso} +%====================================================================== +\section{PEP 235: Case-Insensitive Platforms and \keyword{import}} + +XXX + %====================================================================== \section{PEP 217: Interactive Display Hook} @@ -529,6 +499,32 @@ operations will now be processed at the C level.} \begin{itemize} +\item Ka-Ping Yee contributed two new modules: \module{inspect.py}, a module for +getting information about live Python code, and \module{pydoc.py}, a +module for interactively converting docstrings to HTML or text. +As a bonus, \file{Tools/scripts/pydoc}, which is now automatically +installed, uses \module{pydoc.py} to display documentation given a Python module, package, or class name. For example, +\samp{pydoc xml.dom} displays the following: + +\begin{verbatim} +Python Library Documentation: package xml.dom in xml + +NAME + xml.dom - W3C Document Object Model implementation for Python. + +FILE + /usr/local/lib/python2.1/xml/dom/__init__.pyc + +DESCRIPTION + The Python mapping of the Document Object Model is documented in the + Python Library Reference in the section on the xml.dom package. + + This package contains the following modules: + ... +\end{verbatim} + +\file{pydoc} quickly becomes addictive; try it out! + \item The \module{doctest} module provides a testing framework based on running embedded examples in docstrings and comparing the results against the expected output. Contributed by Tim Peters. @@ -549,10 +545,10 @@ visible. \item The PyXML package has gone through a few releases since Python 2.0, and Python 2.1 includes an updated version of the \module{xml} -package. Some of the noteworthy changes include support for Expat -1.2, the ability for Expat parsers to handle files in any encoding -supported by Python, and various bugfixes for SAX, DOM, and the -\module{minidom} module. +package. Some of the noteworthy changes include support for Expat 1.2 +and later versions, the ability for Expat parsers to handle files in +any encoding supported by Python, and various bugfixes for SAX, DOM, +and the \module{minidom} module. \item Various functions in the \module{time} module, such as \function{asctime()} and \function{localtime()}, require a floating @@ -596,7 +592,7 @@ put it into production code. \end{itemize} %====================================================================== -\section{Minor Changes and Fixes} +\section{Other Changes and Fixes} There were relatively few smaller changes made in Python 2.1 due to the shorter release cycle. A search through the CVS change logs turns @@ -611,8 +607,8 @@ should be faster than the system \function{malloc()} and have less memory overhead. The allocator uses C's \function{malloc()} function to get large pools of memory, and then fulfills smaller memory requests from these pools. It can be enabled by providing the -"--with-pymalloc" option to the \filename{configure} script; see -\filename{Objects/obmalloc.c} for the implementation details. +"--with-pymalloc" option to the \file{configure} script; see +\file{Objects/obmalloc.c} for the implementation details. Contributed by Vladimir Marangozov. \item The speed of line-oriented file I/O has been improved because @@ -690,9 +686,9 @@ code. \end{itemize} -And there's the usual list of bugfixes, minor memory leaks, docstring -edits, and other tweaks, too lengthy to be worth itemizing; see the -CVS logs for the full details if you want them. +And there's the usual list of minor bugfixes, minor memory leaks, +docstring edits, and other tweaks, too lengthy to be worth itemizing; +see the CVS logs for the full details if you want them. %======================================================================