Merge last minute 2.2c1 changes from branch to trunk.

Misc/NEWS

@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ Release date: 14-Dec-2001
 
 Type/class unification and new-style classes
 
+- Guido's tutorial introduction to the new type/class features has
+  been extensively updated.  See
+
+      http://www.python.org/2.2/descrintro.html
+
+  That remains the primary documentation in this area.
+
 - Fixed a leak: instance variables declared with __slots__ were never
   deleted!
 
@@ -73,10 +80,27 @@ Library
 
 - The charset alias windows_1252 has been added.
 
+- types.StringTypes is a tuple containing the defined string types;
+  usually this will be (str, unicode), but if Python was compiled
+  without Unicode support it will be just (str,).
+
+- The pulldom and minidom modules were synchronized to PyXML.
+
 Tools/Demos
 
+- A new script called Tools/scripts/google.py was added, which fires
+  off a search on Google.
+
 Build
 
+- Note that release builds of Python should arrange to define the
+  preprocessor symbol NDEBUG on the command line (or equivalent).
+  In the 2.2 pre-release series we tried to define this by magic in
+  Python.h instead, but it proved to cause problems for extension
+  authors.  The Unix, Windows and Mac builds now all define NDEBUG in
+  release builds via cmdline (or equivalent) instead.  Ports to
+  other platforms should do likewise.
+
 - It is no longer necessary to use --with-suffix when building on a
   case-insensitive file system (such as Mac OS X HFS+). In the build
   directory an extension is used, but not in the installed python.
@@ -105,6 +129,12 @@ Mac
 - In unix-Python on Mac OS X (and darwin) sys.platform is now "darwin",
   without any trailing digits.
 
+- Changed logic for finding python home in Mac OS X framework Pythons.
+  Now sys.executable points to the executable again, in stead of to
+  the shared library. The latter is used only for locating the python
+  home.
+
+
 What's New in Python 2.2b2?
 Release date: 16-Nov-2001
 ===========================

README

@@ -85,6 +85,11 @@ access.  The documentation is available in HTML, PostScript, PDF, and
 LaTeX formats; the LaTeX version is primarily for documentation
 authors, translators, and people with special formatting requirements.
 
+The best documentation for the new (in Python 2.2) type/class unification
+features is Guido's tutorial introduction, at
+
+    http://www.python.org/2.2/descrintro.html
+
 
 Web sites
 ---------
@@ -400,16 +405,18 @@ Mac OS X 10: One of the regular expression tests fails
         interface modules. The modules themselves are currently only built
         if you add the --enable-framework option, see below.
 
-        On a clean OSX /usr/local does not exist. Do a "sudo mkdir -m 775 /usr/local"
+        On a clean OSX /usr/local does not exist. Do a
+	"sudo mkdir -m 775 /usr/local"
         before you do a make install. Alternatively, do "sudo make install"
         which installs everything as superuser.
 
-        You may want to try the configure option "--enable-framework" which
+        You may want to try the configure option "--enable-framework"
-        installs Python as a framework. The location can be set as argument
+        which installs Python as a framework. The location can be set
-        to the --enable-framework option (default /Library/Frameworks). You may
+        as argument to the --enable-framework option (default
-        also want to check out ./Mac/OSX for building a Python.app. You may also
+        /Library/Frameworks). You may also want to check out ./Mac/OSX
-        want to manually install a symlink in /usr/local/bin/python to the
+        for building a Python.app. You may also want to manually
-        executable deep down in the framework.
+        install a symlink in /usr/local/bin/python to the executable
+        deep down in the framework.
 
 Cygwin: With recent (relative to the time of writing, 2001-12-11)
         Cygwin installations, Python builds and passes all tests on
@@ -826,6 +833,11 @@ configuration of your system.  Most symbols must simply be defined as
 otherwise; however the *_t type symbols must be defined as some variant
 of int if they need to be defined at all.
 
+For all platforms, it's important that the build arrange to define the
+preprocessor symbol NDEBUG on the compiler command line in a release
+build of Python (else assert() calls remain in the code, hurting
+release-build performance).  The Unix, Windows and Mac builds already
+do this.
 
 
 Miscellaneous issues