1.6 is history.
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Guido van Rossum
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Misc/HISTORY
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Misc/HISTORY
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@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
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Python history
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Python History
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--------------
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This file contains the release messages for previous Python releases.
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@ -8,6 +8,310 @@ As you read on you go back to the dark ages of Python's history.
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======================================================================
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What's new in release 1.6?
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==========================
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Below is a list of all relevant changes since release 1.5.2.
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Source Incompatibilities
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------------------------
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Several small incompatible library changes may trip you up:
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- The append() method for lists can no longer be invoked with more
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than one argument. This used to append a single tuple made out of
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all arguments, but was undocumented. To append a tuple, use
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e.g. l.append((a, b, c)).
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- The connect(), connect_ex() and bind() methods for sockets require
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exactly one argument. Previously, you could call s.connect(host,
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port), but this was undocumented. You must now write
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s.connect((host, port)).
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- The str() and repr() functions are now different more often. For
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long integers, str() no longer appends a 'L'. Thus, str(1L) == '1',
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which used to be '1L'; repr(1L) is unchanged and still returns '1L'.
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For floats, repr() now gives 17 digits of precision, to ensure no
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precision is lost (on all current hardware).
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- The -X option is gone. Built-in exceptions are now always
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classes. Many more library modules also have been converted to
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class-based exceptions.
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Binary Incompatibilities
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------------------------
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- Third party extensions built for Python 1.5.x cannot be used with
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Python 1.6; these extensions will have to be rebuilt for Python 1.6.
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- On Windows, attempting to import a third party extension built for
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Python 1.5.x results in an immediate crash; there's not much we can do
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about this. Check your PYTHONPATH environment variable!
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Overview of Changes since 1.5.2
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-------------------------------
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For this overview, I have borrowed from the document "What's New in
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Python 2.0" by Andrew Kuchling and Moshe Zadka:
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http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/python/writing/new-python/.
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There are lots of new modules and lots of bugs have been fixed. A
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list of all new modules is included below.
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Probably the most pervasive change is the addition of Unicode support.
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We've added a new fundamental datatype, the Unicode string, a new
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build-in function unicode(), an numerous C APIs to deal with Unicode
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and encodings. See the file Misc/unicode.txt for details, or
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http://starship.python.net/crew/lemburg/unicode-proposal.txt.
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Two other big changes, related to the Unicode support, are the
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addition of string methods and (yet another) new regular expression
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engine.
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- String methods mean that you can now say s.lower() etc. instead of
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importing the string module and saying string.lower(s) etc. One
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peculiarity is that the equivalent of string.join(sequence,
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delimiter) is delimiter.join(sequence). Use " ".join(sequence) for
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the effect of string.join(sequence); to make this more readable, try
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space=" " first. Note that the maxsplit argument defaults in
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split() and replace() have changed from 0 to -1.
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- The new regular expression engine, SRE by Fredrik Lundh, is fully
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backwards compatible with the old engine, and is in fact invoked
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using the same interface (the "re" module). You can explicitly
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invoke the old engine by import pre, or the SRE engine by importing
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sre. SRE is faster than pre, and supports Unicode (which was the
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main reason to put effort in yet another new regular expression
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engine -- this is at least the fourth!).
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Other Changes
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-------------
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Other changes that won't break code but are nice to know about:
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Deleting objects is now safe even for deeply nested data structures.
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Long/int unifications: long integers can be used in seek() calls, as
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slice indexes.
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String formatting (s % args) has a new formatting option, '%r', which
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acts like '%s' but inserts repr(arg) instead of str(arg). (Not yet in
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alpha 1.)
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Greg Ward's "distutils" package is included: this will make
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installing, building and distributing third party packages much
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simpler.
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There's now special syntax that you can use instead of the apply()
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function. f(*args, **kwds) is equivalent to apply(f, args, kwds).
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You can also use variations f(a1, a2, *args, **kwds) and you can leave
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one or the other out: f(*args), f(**kwds).
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The built-ins int() and long() take an optional second argument to
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indicate the conversion base -- of course only if the first argument
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is a string. This makes string.atoi() and string.atol() obsolete.
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(string.atof() was already obsolete).
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When a local variable is known to the compiler but undefined when
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used, a new exception UnboundLocalError is raised. This is a class
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derived from NameError so code catching NameError should still work.
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The purpose is to provide better diagnostics in the following example:
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x = 1
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def f():
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print x
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x = x+1
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This used to raise a NameError on the print statement, which confused
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even experienced Python programmers (especially if there are several
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hundreds of lines of code between the reference and the assignment to
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x :-).
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You can now override the 'in' operator by defining a __contains__
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method. Note that it has its arguments backwards: x in a causes
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a.__contains__(x) to be called. That's why the name isn't __in__.
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The exception AttributeError will have a more friendly error message,
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e.g.: <code>'Spam' instance has no attribute 'eggs'</code>. This may
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<b>break code</b> that expects the message to be exactly the attribute
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name.
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New Modules in 1.6
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------------------
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UserString - base class for deriving from the string type.
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distutils - tools for distributing Python modules.
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robotparser - parse a robots.txt file, for writing web spiders.
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(Moved from Tools/webchecker/.)
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linuxaudiodev - audio for Linux.
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mmap - treat a file as a memory buffer. (Windows and Unix.)
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sre - regular expressions (fast, supports unicode). Currently, this
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code is very rough. Eventually, the re module will be reimplemented
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using sre (without changes to the re API).
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filecmp - supersedes the old cmp.py and dircmp.py modules.
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tabnanny - check Python sources for tab-width dependance. (Moved from
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Tools/scripts/.)
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urllib2 - new and improved but incompatible version of urllib (still
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experimental).
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zipfile - read and write zip archives.
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codecs - support for Unicode encoders/decoders.
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unicodedata - provides access to the Unicode 3.0 database.
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_winreg - Windows registry access.
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encodings - package which provides a large set of standard codecs --
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currently only for the new Unicode support. It has a drop-in extension
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mechanism which allows you to add new codecs by simply copying them
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into the encodings package directory. Asian codec support will
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probably be made available as separate distribution package built upon
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this technique and the new distutils package.
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Changed Modules
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---------------
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readline, ConfigParser, cgi, calendar, posix, readline, xmllib, aifc,
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chunk, wave, random, shelve, nntplib - minor enhancements.
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socket, httplib, urllib - optional OpenSSL support (Unix only).
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_tkinter - support for 8.0 up to 8.3. Support for versions older than
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8.0 has been dropped.
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string - most of this module is deprecated now that strings have
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methods. This no longer uses the built-in strop module, but takes
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advantage of the new string methods to provide transparent support for
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both Unicode and ordinary strings.
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Changes on Windows
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------------------
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The installer no longer runs a separate Tcl/Tk installer; instead, it
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installs the needed Tcl/Tk files directly in the Python directory. If
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you already have a Tcl/Tk installation, this wastes some disk space
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(about 4 Megs) but avoids problems with conflincting Tcl/Tk
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installations, and makes it much easier for Python to ensure that
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Tcl/Tk can find all its files. Note: the alpha installers don't
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include the documentation.
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The Windows installer now installs by default in \Python16\ on the
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default volume, instead of \Program Files\Python-1.6\.
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Changed Tools
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-------------
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IDLE - complete overhaul. See the <a href="../idle/">IDLE home
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page</a> for more information. (Python 1.6 alpha 1 will come with
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IDLE 0.6.)
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Tools/i18n/pygettext.py - Python equivalent of xgettext(1). A message
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text extraction tool used for internationalizing applications written
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in Python.
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Obsolete Modules
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----------------
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stdwin and everything that uses it. (Get Python 1.5.2 if you need
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it. :-)
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soundex. (Skip Montanaro has a version in Python but it won't be
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included in the Python release.)
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cmp, cmpcache, dircmp. (Replaced by filecmp.)
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dump. (Use pickle.)
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find. (Easily coded using os.walk().)
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grep. (Not very useful as a library module.)
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packmail. (No longer has any use.)
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poly, zmod. (These were poor examples at best.)
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strop. (No longer needed by the string module.)
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util. (This functionality was long ago built in elsewhere).
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whatsound. (Use sndhdr.)
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Detailed Changes from 1.6b1 to 1.6
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----------------------------------
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- Slight changes to the CNRI license. A copyright notice has been
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added; the requirement to indicate the nature of modifications now
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applies when making a derivative work available "to others" instead of
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just "to the public"; the version and date are updated. The new
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license has a new handle.
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- Added the Tools/compiler package. This is a project led by Jeremy
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Hylton to write the Python bytecode generator in Python.
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- The function math.rint() is removed.
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- In Python.h, "#define _GNU_SOURCE 1" was added.
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- Version 0.9.1 of Greg Ward's distutils is included (instead of
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version 0.9).
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- A new version of SRE is included. It is more stable, and more
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compatible with the old RE module. Non-matching ranges are indicated
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by -1, not None. (The documentation said None, but the PRE
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implementation used -1; changing to None would break existing code.)
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- The winreg module has been renamed to _winreg. (There are plans for
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a higher-level API called winreg, but this has not yet materialized in
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a form that is acceptable to the experts.)
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- The _locale module is enabled by default.
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- Fixed the configuration line for the _curses module.
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- A few crashes have been fixed, notably <file>.writelines() with a
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list containing non-string objects would crash, and there were
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situations where a lost SyntaxError could dump core.
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- The <list>.extend() method now accepts an arbitrary sequence
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argument.
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- If __str__() or __repr__() returns a Unicode object, this is
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converted to an 8-bit string.
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- Unicode string comparisons is no longer aware of UTF-16
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encoding peculiarities; it's a straight 16-bit compare.
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- The Windows installer now installs the LICENSE file and no longer
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registers the Python DLL version in the registry (this is no longer
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needed). It now uses Tcl/Tk 8.3.2.
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- A few portability problems have been fixed, in particular a
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compilation error involving socklen_t.
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- The PC configuration is slightly friendlier to non-Microsoft
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compilers.
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======================================================================
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From 1.5.2c1 to 1.5.2 (final)
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=============================
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