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diff --git a/Misc/HISTORY b/Misc/HISTORY index 8046c28..a36a5f8 100644 --- a/Misc/HISTORY +++ b/Misc/HISTORY @@ -6,6 +6,161 @@ This file contains the release messages for previous Python releases read on you go back to the dark ages of Python's history. +===================================== +==> Release 1.3 (13 October 1995) <== +===================================== + +Major change +============ + +Two words: Keyword Arguments. See the first section of Chapter 12 of +the Tutorial. + +(The rest of this file is textually the same as the remaining sections +of that chapter.) + + +Changes to the WWW and Internet tools +===================================== + +The "htmllib" module has been rewritten in an incompatible fashion. +The new version is considerably more complete (HTML 2.0 except forms, +but including all ISO-8859-1 entity definitions), and easy to use. +Small changes to "sgmllib" have also been made, to better match the +tokenization of HTML as recognized by other web tools. + +A new module "formatter" has been added, for use with the new +"htmllib" module. + +The "urllib"and "httplib" modules have been changed somewhat to allow +overriding unknown URL types and to support authentication. They now +use "mimetools.Message" instead of "rfc822.Message" to parse headers. +The "endrequest()" method has been removed from the HTTP class since +it breaks the interaction with some servers. + +The "rfc822.Message" class has been changed to allow a flag to be +passed in that says that the file is unseekable. + +The "ftplib" module has been fixed to be (hopefully) more robust on +Linux. + +Several new operations that are optionally supported by servers have +been added to "nntplib": "xover", "xgtitle", "xpath" and "date". + +Other Language Changes +====================== + +The "raise" statement now takes an optional argument which specifies +the traceback to be used when printing the exception's stack trace. +This must be a traceback object, such as found in "sys.exc_traceback". +When omitted or given as "None", the old behavior (to generate a stack +trace entry for the current stack frame) is used. + +The tokenizer is now more tolerant of alien whitespace. Control-L in +the leading whitespace of a line resets the column number to zero, +while Control-R just before the end of the line is ignored. + +Changes to Built-in Operations +============================== + +For file objects, "f.read(0)" and "f.readline(0)" now return an empty +string rather than reading an unlimited number of bytes. For the +latter, omit the argument altogether or pass a negative value. + +A new system variable, "sys.platform", has been added. It specifies +the current platform, e.g. "sunos5" or "linux1". + +The built-in functions "input()" and "raw_input()" now use the GNU +readline library when it has been configured (formerly, only +interactive input to the interpreter itself was read using GNU +readline). The GNU readline library provides elaborate line editing +and history. The Python debugger ("pdb") is the first beneficiary of +this change. + +Two new built-in functions, "globals()" and "locals()", provide access +to dictionaries containming current global and local variables, +respectively. (These augment rather than replace "vars()", which +returns the current local variables when called without an argument, +and a module's global variables when called with an argument of type +module.) + +The built-in function "compile()" now takes a third possible value for +the kind of code to be compiled: specifying "'single'" generates code +for a single interactive statement, which prints the output of +expression statements that evaluate to something else than "None". + +Library Changes +=============== + +There are new module "ni" and "ihooks" that support importing modules +with hierarchical names such as "A.B.C". This is enabled by writing +"import ni; ni.ni()" at the very top of the main program. These +modules are amply documented in the Python source. + +The module "rexec" has been rewritten (incompatibly) to define a class +and to use "ihooks". + +The "string.split()" and "string.splitfields()" functions are now the +same function (the presence or absence of the second argument +determines which operation is invoked); similar for "string.join()" +and "string.joinfields()". + +The "Tkinter" module and its helper "Dialog" have been revamped to use +keyword arguments. Tk 4.0 is now the standard. A new module +"FileDialog" has been added which implements standard file selection +dialogs. + +The optional built-in modules "dbm" and "gdbm" are more coordinated +--- their "open()" functions now take the same values for their "flag" +argument, and the "flag" and "mode" argument have default values (to +open the database for reading only, and to create the database with +mode "0666" minuse the umask, respectively). The memory leaks have +finally been fixed. + +A new dbm-like module, "bsddb", has been added, which uses the BSD DB +package's hash method. + +A portable (though slow) dbm-clone, implemented in Python, has been +added for systems where none of the above is provided. It is aptly +dubbed "dumbdbm". + +The module "anydbm" provides a unified interface to "bsddb", "gdbm", +"dbm", and "dumbdbm", choosing the first one available. + +A new extension module, "binascii", provides a variety of operations +for conversion of text-encoded binary data. + +There are three new or rewritten companion modules implemented in +Python that can encode and decode the most common such formats: "uu" +(uuencode), "base64" and "binhex". + +A module to handle the MIME encoding quoted-printable has also been +added: "quopri". + +The parser module (which provides an interface to the Python parser's +abstract syntax trees) has been rewritten (incompatibly) by Fred +Drake. It now lets you change the parse tree and compile the result! + +The \code{syslog} module has been upgraded and documented. + +Other Changes +============= + +The dynamic module loader recognizes the fact that different filenames +point to the same shared library and loads the library only once, so +you can have a single shared library that defines multiple modules. +(SunOS / SVR4 style shared libraries only.) + +Jim Fulton's ``abstract object interface'' has been incorporated into +the run-time API. For more detailes, read the files +"Include/abstract.h" and "Objects/abstract.c". + +The Macintosh version is much more robust now. + +Numerous things I have forgotten or that are so obscure no-one will +notice them anyway :-) + + =================================== ==> Release 1.2 (13 April 1995) <== =================================== |