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Create separate section for changes to the standard library

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Make note about difflib and doctest
Bump version number
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Andrew M. Kuchling 2001-02-11 16:55:39 +00:00
parent 3e876565a3
commit 81b6ae7ef7
1 changed files with 51 additions and 41 deletions
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Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex
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@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
\documentclass{howto}
% XXX difflib.py, doctest.py added
% $Id$
\title{What's New in Python 2.1}
\release{0.05}
\release{0.06}
\author{A.M. Kuchling}
\authoraddress{\email{amk1@bigfoot.com}}
\begin{document}
@ -435,6 +437,54 @@ operations will now be processed at the C level.}
\end{seealso}
%======================================================================
\section{New and Improved Modules}
\begin{itemize}
\item \module{curses.panel}, a wrapper for the panel library, part of
ncurses and of SYSV curses, was contributed by Thomas Gellekum. The
panel library provides windows with the additional feature of depth.
Windows can be moved higher or lower in the depth ordering, and the
panel library figures out where panels overlap and which sections are
visible.
\item The PyXML package has gone through a few releases since Python
2.0, and Python 2.1 includes an updated version of the \module{xml}
package. Some of the noteworthy changes include support for Expat
1.2, the ability for Expat parsers to handle files in any encoding
supported by Python, and various bugfixes for SAX, DOM, and the
\module{minidom} module.
\item Various functions in the \module{time} module, such as
\function{asctime()} and \function{localtime()}, require a floating
point argument containing the time in seconds since the epoch. The
most common use of these functions is to work with the current time,
so the floating point argument has been made optional; when a value
isn't provided, the current time will be used. For example, log file
entries usually need a string containing the current time; in Python
2.1, \code{time.asctime()} can be used, instead of the lengthier
\code{time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time()))} that was previously
required.
This change was proposed and implemented by Thomas Wouters.
\item The \module{ftplib} module now defaults to retrieving files in
passive mode, because passive mode is more likely to work from behind
a firewall. This request came from the Debian bug tracking system,
since other Debian packages use \module{ftplib} to retrieve files and
then don't work from behind a firewall. It's deemed unlikely that
this will cause problems for anyone, because Netscape defaults to
passive mode and few people complain, but if passive mode is
unsuitable for your application or network setup, call
\method{set_pasv(0)} on FTP objects to disable passive mode.
\item Support for raw socket access has been added to the
\module{socket} module, contributed by Grant Edwards.
\end{itemize}
%======================================================================
\section{Minor Changes and Fixes}
@ -480,13 +530,6 @@ pair from the dictionary and returns it as a 2-tuple. This was
implemented mostly by Tim Peters and Guido van Rossum, after a
suggestion and preliminary patch by Moshe Zadka.
\item \module{curses.panel}, a wrapper for the panel library, part of
ncurses and of SYSV curses, was contributed by Thomas Gellekum. The
panel library provides windows with the additional feature of depth.
Windows can be moved higher or lower in the depth ordering, and the
panel library figures out where panels overlap and which sections are
visible.
\item Modules can now control which names are imported when \code{from
\var{module} import *} is used, by defining an \code{__all__}
attribute containing a list of names that will be imported. One
@ -504,26 +547,6 @@ A stricter version of this patch was first suggested and implemented
by Ben Wolfson, but after some python-dev discussion, a weaker final
version was checked in.
\item The PyXML package has gone through a few releases since Python
2.0, and Python 2.1 includes an updated version of the \module{xml}
package. Some of the noteworthy changes include support for Expat
1.2, the ability for Expat parsers to handle files in any encoding
supported by Python, and various bugfixes for SAX, DOM, and the
\module{minidom} module.
\item Various functions in the \module{time} module, such as
\function{asctime()} and \function{localtime()}, require a floating
point argument containing the time in seconds since the epoch. The
most common use of these functions is to work with the current time,
so the floating point argument has been made optional; when a value
isn't provided, the current time will be used. For example, log file
entries usually need a string containing the current time; in Python
2.1, \code{time.asctime()} can be used, instead of the lengthier
\code{time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time()))} that was previously
required.
This change was proposed and implemented by Thomas Wouters.
\item Applying \function{repr()} to strings previously used octal
escapes for non-printable characters; for example, a newline was
\code{'\e 012'}. This was a vestigial trace of Python's C ancestry, but
@ -532,19 +555,6 @@ using hex escapes instead of octal ones, and using the \code{\e n},
\code{\e t}, \code{\e r} escapes for the appropriate characters, and
implemented this new formatting.
\item The \module{ftplib} module now defaults to retrieving files in
passive mode, because passive mode is more likely to work from behind
a firewall. This request came from the Debian bug tracking system,
since other Debian packages use \module{ftplib} to retrieve files and
then don't work from behind a firewall. It's deemed unlikely that
this will cause problems for anyone, because Netscape defaults to
passive mode and few people complain, but if passive mode is
unsuitable for your application or network setup, call
\method{set_pasv(0)} on FTP objects to disable passive mode.
\item Support for raw socket access has been added to the
\module{socket} module, contributed by Grant Edwards.
\item Syntax errors detected at compile-time can now raise exceptions
containing the filename and line number of the error, a pleasant side
effect of the compiler reorganization done by Jeremy Hylton.