diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Misc')
| -rw-r--r-- | Misc/NEWS | 416 |
1 files changed, 225 insertions, 191 deletions
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ Ctrl-Z) to exit. - New and improved Misc/python-mode.el (Python mode for Emacs). +- Revert a new feature in Unix dynamic loading: for one or two +revisions, modules were loaded using the RTLD_GLOBAL flag. It turned +out to be a bad idea. + Miscellaneous fixed bugs ------------------------ @@ -44,19 +48,25 @@ __getattr__ method). - Removed the only use of calloc(). This triggered an obscure bug on multiprocessor Sparc Solaris 2.6. +- Fix a peculiar bug that would allow "import sys.time" to succeed +(believing the built-in time module to be a part of the sys package). + +- Fix a bug in the overflow checking when converting a Python long to +a C long (failed to convert -2147483648L, and some other cases). + Documentation ------------- +- Doc strings have been added to many extension modules: __builtin__, +errno, select, signal, socket, sys, thread, time. Also to methods of +list objects (try [].append.__doc__). A doc string on a type will now +automatically be propagated to an instance if the instance has methods +that are accessed in the usual way. + - The documentation has been expanded and the formatting improved. (Remember that the documentation is now unbundled and has its own release cycle though; see http://www.python.org/doc/.) -- Doc strings have been added to many modules: socket, signal, select, -time, thread, sys, __builtin__. Also to methods of list objects (try -[].append.__doc__). A doc string on a type will now automatically be -propagated to an instance if the instance has methods that are -accessed in the usual way. - - Added Misc/Porting -- a mini-FAQ on porting to a new platform. Ports and build procedure @@ -73,28 +83,21 @@ Ports and build procedure works, it won't also use -Olimit 1500 (which gives a warning for every file). Also support the SGI_ABI environment variable better. -- Other miscellaneous improvements to the configure script and -Makefiles. - - The makesetup script now understands absolute pathnames ending in .o in the module -- it assumes it's a file for which we have no source. +- Other miscellaneous improvements to the configure script and +Makefiles. + - The test suite now uses a different sound sample. -Built-in functions and exceptions ---------------------------------- +Built-in functions +------------------ - Better checks for invalid input to int(), long(), string.atoi(), string.atol(). (Formerly, a sign without digits would be accepted as a legal ways to spell zero.) -- New standard exceptions EnvironmentError and PosixError; -EnvironmentError is the base class for IOError and PosixError; -PosixError is the same as os.error. All this so that either exception -class can be instantiated with a third argument indicating a filename. -The built-in function open() and most os/posix functions that take a -filename argument now use this. - - Changes to map() and filter() to use the length of a sequence only as a hint -- if an IndexError happens earlier, take that. (Formerly, this was considered an error.) @@ -105,12 +108,31 @@ default (instead of raising AttributeError). - Implement round() slightly different, so that for negative ndigits no additional errors happen in the last step. -Built-in types and statements ------------------------------ +- The open() function now adds the filename to the exception when it +fails. + +Built-in exceptions +------------------- + +- New standard exceptions EnvironmentError and PosixError. +EnvironmentError is the base class for IOError and PosixError; +PosixError is the same as os.error. All this so that either exception +class can be instantiated with a third argument indicating a filename. +The built-in function open() and most os/posix functions that take a +filename argument now use this. + +Built-in types +-------------- + +- List objects now have an experimental pop() method; l.pop() returns +and removes the last item; l.pop(i) returns and removes the item at +i. Also, the sort() method is faster again. Sorting is now also +safer: it is impossible for the sorting function to modify the list +while the sort is going on (which could cause core dumps). -- Changes to comparisons: numbers now compare smaller than any other -type. This is done to prevent the circularity where [] < 0L < 1 < [] -is true. As a side effect, cmp(None, 0) is now positive instead of +- Changes to comparisons: numbers are now smaller than any other type. +This is done to prevent the circularity where [] < 0L < 1 < [] is +true. As a side effect, cmp(None, 0) is now positive instead of negative. This *shouldn't* affect any working code, but I've found that the change caused several "sleeping" bugs to become active, so beware! @@ -125,47 +147,52 @@ now allowed (with stringent type checks); also allow assignment to __getattr__ etc. The cached values for __getattr__ etc. are recomputed after such assignments (but not for derived classes :-( ). -- New, better performing sort() method for list objects. - -- List objects now have an experimental pop() method; l.pop() returns -and removes the last item; l.pop(i) returns and removes the item at -i. Also, the sort() method is faster again. Sorting is now also -safer: it is impossible for the sorting function to modify the list -while the sort is going on (this could cause core dumps). - -- Fix a bug in the overflow checking when converting a Python long to -a C long (failed to convert -2147483648L, and other spurious bugs). - - Allow assignment to some attributes of function objects: func_code, func_defaults and func_doc / __doc__. (With type checks except for __doc__ / func_doc .) -- Fix a peculiar bug that would allow "import sys.time" to succeed -(believing the built-in time module to be a part of the sys package). - -Library modules +Python services --------------- - New tests (in Lib/test): reperf.py (regular expression benchmark), sortperf.py (list sorting benchmark), test_MimeWriter.py (test case for the MimeWriter module). -- New functions in os.py: makedirs(), removedirs(), renames(). New -variable: linesep (the line separator as found in binary files, -i.e. '\n' on Unix, '\r\n' on DOS/Windows, '\r' on Mac. Do *not* use -this with files opened in (default) text mode; the line separator used -will always be '\n'! +- Generalized test/regrtest.py so that it is useful for testing other +packages. -- Changes to the 'os.path' submodule of os.py: added getsize(), -getmtime(), getatime() -- these fetch the most popular items from the -stat return tuple. +- The ihooks.py module now understands package imports. -- The smtplib.py module now supports ESMTP and has improved standard -compliance, for picky servers. +- In code.py, add a class that subsumes Fredrik Lundh's +PythonInterpreter class. The interact() function now uses this. -- Some fixes to gzip.py. In particular, the readlines() method now -returns the lines *with* trailing newline characters, like readlines() -of regular file objects. +- In rlcompleter.py, in completer(), return None instead of raising an +IndexError when there are no more completions left. + +- Fixed the marshal module to test for certain common kinds of invalid +input. (It's still not foolproof!) + +- In the operator module, add an alias (now the preferred name) +"contains" for "sequenceincludes". + +String Services +--------------- + +- In the string and strop modules, in the replace() function, treat an +empty pattern as an error (since it's not clear what was meant!). + +- Some speedups to re.py, especially the string substitution and split +functions. Also added new function/method findall(), to find all +occurrences of a given substring. + +- In cStringIO, add better argument type checking and support the +readonly 'closed' attribute (like regular files). + +- In the struct module, unsigned 1-2 byte sized formats no longer +result in long integer values. + +Miscellaneous services +---------------------- - In whrandom.py, added new method and function randrange(), same as choice(range(start, stop, step)) but faster. This addresses the @@ -177,51 +204,80 @@ adding extra range and type checking to its arguments! crash when invoked from separate threads; now the worst it can do is give a duplicate result occasionally). +- Some restructuring and generalization done to cmd.py. + +- Major upgrade to ConfigParser.py; converted to using 're', added new +exceptions, support underscore in section header and option name. No +longer add 'name' option to every section; instead, add '__name__'. + - In getpass.py, don't use raw_input() to ask for the password -- we don't want it to show up in the readline history! Also don't catch interrupts (the try-finally already does all necessary cleanup). -- Generalized test/regrtest.py so that it is useful for testing other -packages. +Generic OS Services +------------------- -- Changes in urllib.py; sped up unquote() and quote(). Fixed an -obscure bug in quote_plus(). Added urlencode(dict) -- convenience -function for sending a POST request with urlopen(). Use the getpass -module to ask for a password. Rewrote the (test) main program so that -when used as a script, it can retrieve one or more URLs to stdout. -Use -t to run the self-test. Made the proxy code work again. +- New functions in os.py: makedirs(), removedirs(), renames(). New +variable: linesep (the line separator as found in binary files, +i.e. '\n' on Unix, '\r\n' on DOS/Windows, '\r' on Mac. Do *not* use +this with files opened in (default) text mode; the line separator used +will always be '\n'! -- In pdb.py, support for setting breaks on files/modules that haven't -been loaded yet. +- Changes to the 'os.path' submodule of os.py: added getsize(), +getmtime(), getatime() -- these fetch the most popular items from the +stat return tuple. -- In rfc822.py, add a new class AddressList. Also support a new -overridable method, isheader(). Also add a get() method similar to -dictionaries (and make getheader() an alias for it). Also, be smarter -about seekable (test whether fp.tell() works) and test for presence of -unread() method before trying seeks. +- In the time module, add strptime(), if it exists. (This parses a +time according to a format -- the inverse of strftime().) Also, +remove the call to mktime() from strftime() -- it messed up the +formatting of some non-local times. -- Some speedups to re.py, especially the string substitution and split -functions. Also added new function/method findall(), to find all -occurrences of a given substring. +- In the socket module, added a new function gethostbyname_ex(). +Also, don't use #ifdef to test for some symbols that are enums on some +platforms (and should exist everywhere). -- Improvements to rexec.py: package support; support a (minimal) -sys.exc_info(). Also made the (test) main program a bit fancier (you -can now use it to run arbitrary Python scripts in restricted mode). +Optional OS Services +-------------------- -- In sgmllib.py, restore the call to report_unbalanced() that was lost -long ago. Also some other improvements: handle <? processing -instructions >, allow . and - in entity names, and allow \r\n as line -separator. +- Some fixes to gzip.py. In particular, the readlines() method now +returns the lines *with* trailing newline characters, like readlines() +of regular file objects. Also, it didn't work together with cPickle; +fixed that. -- Major upgrade to ConfigParser.py; converted to using 're', added new -exceptions, support underscore in section header and option name. No -longer add 'name' option to every section; instead, add '__name__'. +- In whichdb.py, support byte-swapped dbhash (bsddb) files. -- The ihooks.py module now understands package imports. +- In anydbm.py, look at the type of an existing database to determine +which module to use to open it. (The anydbm.error exception is now a +tuple.) -- Some restructuring and generalization done to cmd.py. +Unix Services +------------- -- Some restructuring and generalization done to multifile.py. +- In the termios module, in tcsetattr(), initialize the structure vy +calling tcgetattr(). + +- Added some of the "wait status inspection" macros as functions to +the posix module (and thus to the os module): WEXITSTATUS(), +WIFEXITED(), WIFSIGNALED(), WIFSTOPPED(), WSTOPSIG(), WTERMSIG(). + +- In the syslog module, make the default facility more intuitive +(matching the docs). + +Debugger +-------- + +- In pdb.py, support for setting breaks on files/modules that haven't +been loaded yet. + +Internet Protocols and Support +------------------------------ + +- Changes in urllib.py; sped up unquote() and quote(). Fixed an +obscure bug in quote_plus(). Added urlencode(dict) -- convenience +function for sending a POST request with urlopen(). Use the getpass +module to ask for a password. Rewrote the (test) main program so that +when used as a script, it can retrieve one or more URLs to stdout. +Use -t to run the self-test. Made the proxy code work again. - In cgi.py, treat "HEAD" the same as "GET", so that CGI scripts don't fail when someone asks for their HEAD. Also, for POST, set the @@ -230,64 +286,38 @@ FieldStorage.__init__(), when method='GET', always get the query string from environ['QUERY_STRING'] or sys.argv[1] -- ignore an explicitly passed in fp. -- Improved imaplib.py. - -- In code.py, add a class that subsumes Fredrik Lundh's -PythonInterpreter class. The interact() function now uses this. - -- In multifile.py, support a seekable flag. - -- Fixed UDP support in SocketServer.py, which never worked. - -- In rlcompleter.py, in completer(), return None instead of raising an -IndexError when there are no more completions left. +- The smtplib.py module now supports ESMTP and has improved standard +compliance, for picky servers. -- In the string and strop modules, in the replace() function, treat an -empty pattern as an error (since it's not clear what was meant!). +- Improved imaplib.py. -- The gzip.py module didn't work together with cPickle. Fixed. +- Fixed UDP support in SocketServer.py (it never worked). - Fixed a small bug in CGIHTTPServer.py. -- In whichdb.py, support byte-swapped dbhash (bsddb) files. +Internet Data handling +---------------------- -- In anydbm.py, look at the type of an existing database to determine -which module to use to open it. (The anydbm.error exception is now a -tuple.) - -Extension modules ------------------ - -- In the socket module: new function gethostbyname_ex(). Also, don't -use #ifdef to test for some symbols that are enums on some platforms -(and should exist everywhere). - -- Added some of the "wait status inspection" macros as functions: -WEXITSTATUS(), WIFEXITED(), WIFSIGNALED(), WIFSTOPPED(), WSTOPSIG(), -WTERMSIG(). - -- In cStringIO, add better argument type checking and support the -readonly 'closed' attribute (like regular files). - -- In the struct module, unsigned 1-2 byte sized formats no longer -result in long integer values. - -- In the termios module, in tcsetattr(), initialize the structure vy -calling tcgetattr(). +- In rfc822.py, add a new class AddressList. Also support a new +overridable method, isheader(). Also add a get() method similar to +dictionaries (and make getheader() an alias for it). Also, be smarter +about seekable (test whether fp.tell() works) and test for presence of +unread() method before trying seeks. -- In the time module, add strptime(), if it exists. (This parses a -time according to a format -- the inverse of strftime().) Also, -remove the call to mktime() from strftime() -- it messed up the -formatting of some non-local times. +- In sgmllib.py, restore the call to report_unbalanced() that was lost +long ago. Also some other improvements: handle <? processing +instructions >, allow . and - in entity names, and allow \r\n as line +separator. -- Fixed the marshal module to test for certain common kinds of invalid -input. (It's still not foolproof!) +- Some restructuring and generalization done to multifile.py; support +a 'seekable' flag. -- In the operator module, add an alias (now the preferred name) -"contains" for "sequenceincludes". +Restricted Execution +-------------------- -- In the syslog module, make the default facility more intuitive -(matching the docs). +- Improvements to rexec.py: package support; support a (minimal) +sys.exc_info(). Also made the (test) main program a bit fancier (you +can now use it to run arbitrary Python scripts in restricted mode). Tkinter ------- @@ -330,48 +360,67 @@ extension that needs to make calls into the Tcl/Tk C API and needs to get the address of the Tcl interpreter object. A simple cast of the return value to (Tcl_Interp *) will do the trick. -Windows -------- - -- The registry key used is now "1.5" instead of "1.5.x" -- so future -versions of 1.5 and Mark Hammond's win32all installer don't need to be -resynchronized. - -- The project files have been moved so they are distributed in the -same subdirectory (PCbuild) where they must be used; this avoids -confusion. - -- New project files for Windows 3.1 port by Jim Ahlstrom. - -- Got rid of the obsolete subdirectory PC/setup_nt/. - -- os.environ is now all uppercase, but accesses are case insensitive. +Windows General +--------------- - Don't insist on proper case for module source files if the filename is all uppercase (e.g. FOO.PY now matches foo; but FOO.py still doesn't). This should address problems with this feature on oldfashioned filesystems (Novell servers?). +Windows Library +--------------- + +- os.environ is now all uppercase, but accesses are case insensitive, +and the putenv() calls made as a side effect of changing os.environ +are case preserving. + +- Removed samefile(), sameopenfile(), samestat() from os.path (aka +ntpath.py) -- these cannot be made to work reliably (at least I +wouldn't know how). + - Fixed os.pipe() so that it returns file descriptors acceptable to os.read() and os.write() (like it does on Unix), rather than Windows file handles. -- In the select module, put the (huge) file descriptor arrays on the heap. +- Added a table of WSA error codes to socket.py. -- The getpass module now raises KeyboardInterrupt when it sees ^C. +- In the select module, put the (huge) file descriptor arrays on the +heap. -- Changes to os.py: os.environ now upcases keys before storing them on -Windows, DOS and OS/2. +- The getpass module now raises KeyboardInterrupt when it sees ^C. - In mailbox.py, fix tell/seek when using files opened in text mode. - In rfc822.py, fix tell/seek when using files opened in text mode. -- Several improvements to freeze (mostly, but not exclusively for -Windows). +- In the msvcrt extension module, release the interpreter lock for +calls that may block: _locking(), _getch(), _getche(). Also fix a +bogus error return when open_osfhandle() doesn't have the right +argument list. + +Windows Installer +----------------- + +- The registry key used is now "1.5" instead of "1.5.x" -- so future +versions of 1.5 and Mark Hammond's win32all installer don't need to be +resynchronized. + +Windows Tools +------------- -- Moved the VC++ project files and the WISE installer script from PC -to PCbuild. +- Several improvements to freeze specifically for Windows. + +Windows Build Procedure +----------------------- + +- The VC++ project files and the WISE installer have been moved to the +PCbuild subdirectory, so they are distributed in the same subdirectory +where they must be used. This avoids confusion. + +- New project files for Windows 3.1 port by Jim Ahlstrom. + +- Got rid of the obsolete subdirectory PC/setup_nt/. - The projects now use distinct filenames for the .exe, .dll, .lib and .pyd files built in debug mode (by appending "_d" to the base name, @@ -380,27 +429,10 @@ and get the right versions. There's a pragma in config.h that directs the linker to include the appropriate .lib file (so python15.lib no longer needs to be explicit in your project). -- In the msvcrt extension module, release the interpreter lock for -calls that may block: _locking(), _getch(), _getche(). Also fix a -bogus error return when open_osfhandle() doesn't have the right -argument list. - -- Revert a new feature in Unix dynamic loading: for one or two -revisions, modules were loaded using the RTLD_GLOBAL flag. It turned -out to be a bad idea. - - The installer now installs more files (e.g. config.h). The idea is that you shouldn't need the source distribution if you want build your own extensions in C or C++. -- Fixed a very old bug in the parsing of "O?" format specifiers. - -- Added a table of WSA error codes to socket.py. - -- Removed samefile(), sameopenfile(), samestat() from os.path (aka -ntpath.py) -- these cannot be made to work reliably (at least I -wouldn't know how). - Tools and Demos --------------- @@ -429,18 +461,7 @@ Python/C API - Added missing prototypes for PyEval_CallFunction() and PyEval_CallMethod(). -- New APIs for conversion between Python longs and C 'long long' if -your compiler supports it. - -- The code that initializes sys.path now calls Py_GetPythonHome() -instead of getenv("PYTHONHOME"). This, together with the new API -Py_SetPythonHome(), makes it easier for embedding applications to -change the notion of Python's "home" directory (where the libraries -etc. are sought). - -- Changes to PySequence_Tuple() and PySequence_Lis(t) to use the -length of a sequence only as a hint -- if an IndexError happens -earlier, take that. (Formerly, this was considered an error.) +- New macro PyList_SET_ITEM(). - New macros to access object members for PyFunction, PyCFunction objects. @@ -452,11 +473,12 @@ dynamically add one or many entries to the table of built-in modules. Py_InitModule4() with appropriate arguments. (The -4 variant requires you to pass an obscure version number constant which is always the same.) -- Reformatted abstract.c to give it a more familiar "look" and fixed -many error checking bugs. +- New APIs PySys_WriteStdout() and PySys_WriteStderr() to write to +sys.stdout or sys.stderr using a printf-like interface. (Used in +_tkinter.c, for example.) -- Add NULL pointer checks to all calls of a C function through a type -object and extensions (e.g. nb_add). +- New APIs for conversion between Python longs and C 'long long' if +your compiler supports it. - PySequence_In() is now called PySequence_Contains(). (PySequence_In() is still supported for b/w compatibility; it is @@ -467,11 +489,23 @@ declared obsolete because its argument order is confusing.) the error). This was necessary because there is lots of code out there that already assumes this. -- New APIs PySys_WriteStdout() and PySys_WriteStderr() to write to -sys.stdout or sys.stderr using a printf-like interface. (Used in -_tkinter.c, for example.) +- Changes to PySequence_Tuple() and PySequence_List() to use the +length of a sequence only as a hint -- if an IndexError happens +earlier, take that. (Formerly, this was considered an error.) -- New macro PyList_SET_ITEM(). +- Reformatted abstract.c to give it a more familiar "look" and fixed +many error checking bugs. + +- Add NULL pointer checks to all calls of a C function through a type +object and extensions (e.g. nb_add). + +- The code that initializes sys.path now calls Py_GetPythonHome() +instead of getenv("PYTHONHOME"). This, together with the new API +Py_SetPythonHome(), makes it easier for embedding applications to +change the notion of Python's "home" directory (where the libraries +etc. are sought). + +- Fixed a very old bug in the parsing of "O?" format specifiers. ====================================================================== |