* Add various updates reflecting the last two weeks of checkins:

  timeit, base64, MSVC++ 7.1 build, METH_COEXISTS, and optimizations.

* Put in a comment suggesting an improvement to the rsplit() example.

1 files changed, 38 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
index 55af7bc..de06e9e 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex
@@ -149,6 +149,14 @@ the string.
 ['a b', 'c']
 \end{verbatim}
 
+% Consider replacing the above example with one that is less
+% abstract and more suggestive of why the function is useful:
+%       
+%     >>> 'www.python.org'.split('.', 1)
+%    ['www', 'python.org']
+%    >>> 'www.python.org'.rsplit('.', 1)
+%    ['www.python', 'org']       
+
 \item The \method{sort()} method of lists gained three keyword
 arguments, \var{cmp}, \var{key}, and \var{reverse}.  These arguments
 make some common usages of \method{sort()} simpler.  All are optional.
@@ -259,7 +267,18 @@ yellow 5
 
 \begin{itemize}
 
-\item Optimizations should be described here.
+\item \function{list()}, \function{tuple()}, \function{map()},
+  \function{filter()}, and \function{zip()} now run several times
+  faster with non-sequence arguments that supply a \method{__len__()}
+  method.  Previously, the pre-sizing optimization only applied to
+  sequence arguments.
+
+\item The unbound methods \method{list.__getitem__()},
+  \method{dict.__getitem__()}, and \method{dict.__contains__()} are
+  are now implemented as \class{method_descriptor} objects rather
+  than \class{wrapper_descriptor} objects.  This form of optimized
+  access doubles their performance and makes them more suitable for
+  use as arguments to functionals:  \samp{map(dict.__contains__, mydict)}.
 
 \end{itemize}
 
@@ -423,13 +442,22 @@ Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:
   fast dictionary lookups without masking exceptions raised during the
   look-up process.
 
+  \item A new method flag, \code{METH_COEXISTS}, allows a function
+  defined in slots to co-exist with a PyCFunction having the same name.
+  This can halve the access to time to a method such as
+  \method{set.__contains__()}
+
 \end{itemize}
 
 
 %======================================================================
 \subsection{Port-Specific Changes}
 
-Platform-specific changes go here.
+\begin{itemize}
+
+\item The Windows port now builds under MSVC++ 7.1 as well as version 6.
+
+\end{itemize}
 
 
 %======================================================================
@@ -444,7 +472,14 @@ Some of the more notable changes are:
 
 \begin{itemize}
 
-\item Details go here.
+\item The \module{timeit} module now automatically disables periodic
+  garbarge collection during the timing loop.  This change makes
+  consecutive timings more comparable.
+
+\item The \module{base64} module now has more complete RFC 3548 support
+  for Base64, Base32, and Base16 encoding and decoding, including
+  optional case folding and optional alternative alphabets.
+  (Contributed by Barry Warsaw.)
 
 \end{itemize}