updates for final release of 1.2

Misc/NEWS

@@ -2,40 +2,59 @@
 ==> Release 1.2 <==
 ===================================
 
-
-- Virtually all known bugs have been fixed.  For example the
-pow(2,2,3L) bug on Linux has been fixed.  Also the re-entrancy
-problems with __del__ have been fixed.
-
-- Most known memory leaks have been fixed.
+- Changes to Misc/python-mode.el:
+  - Wrapping and indentation within triple quote strings should work
+    properly now.
+  - `Standard' bug reporting mechanism (use C-c C-b)
+  - py-mark-block was moved to C-c C-m
+  - C-c C-v shows you the python-mode version
+  - a basic python-font-lock-keywords has been added for Emacs 19
+    font-lock colorizations.
+  - proper interaction with pending-del and del-sel modes.
+  - New py-electric-colon (:) command for improved outdenting.  Also
+    py-indent-line (TAB) should handle outdented lines better.
+  - New commands py-outdent-left (C-c C-l) and py-indent-right (C-c C-r)
+
+- The Library Reference has been restructured, and many new and
+existing modules are now documented, in particular the debugger and
+the profiler, as well as the persistency and the WWW/Internet support
+modules.
+
+- All known bugs have been fixed.  For example the pow(2,2,3L) bug on
+Linux has been fixed.  Also the re-entrancy problems with __del__ have
+been fixed.
+
+- All known memory leaks have been fixed.
 
 - Phase 2 of the Great Renaming has been executed.  The header files
 now use the new names (PyObject instead of object, etc.).  The linker
 also sees the new names.  Most source files still use the old names,
 by virtue of the rename2.h header file.  If you include Python.h, you
 only see the new names.  Dynamically linked modules have to be
-recompiled.
+recompiled.  (Phase 3, fixing the rest of the sources, will be
+executed gradually with the release later versions.)
 
 - The hooks for implementing "safe-python" (better called "restricted
 execution") are in place.  Specifically, the import statement is
 implemented by calling the built-in function __import__, and the
 built-in names used in a particular scope are taken from the
 dictionary __builtins__ in that scope's global dictionary.  See also
-the new module rexec.py.
+the new (unsupported, undocumented) module rexec.py.
 
 - The import statement now supports the syntax "import a.b.c" and
-"from a.b.c import name".  No meaningful implementation exists, but
-one can be prototyped by replacing the built-in __import__ function.
+"from a.b.c import name".  No officially supported implementation
+exists, but one can be prototyped by replacing the built-in __import__
+function.  A proposal by Ken Manheimer is provided as newimp.py.
 
 - All machinery used by the import statement (or the built-in
 __import__ function) is now exposed through the new built-in module
-"imp".  All dynamic loading machinery is moved to the new file
-importdl.c.
+"imp" (see the library reference manual).  All dynamic loading
+machinery is moved to the new file importdl.c.
 
-- Persistent storage is supported through the use of the module
-"pickle" and "shelve" (implemented in Python).  Read the .py files for
-more info.  There's also a "copy" module implementing deepcopy and
-normal (shallow) copy operations.
+- Persistent storage is supported through the use of the modules
+"pickle" and "shelve" (implemented in Python).  There's also a "copy"
+module implementing deepcopy and normal (shallow) copy operations.
+See the library reference manual.
 
 - Documentation strings for many objects types are accessible through
 the __doc__ attribute.  Modules, classes and functions support special
@@ -44,7 +63,10 @@ consists of just a string literal, that string literal becomes the
 value of the __doc__ attribute.  The default __doc__ attribute is
 None.  Documentation strings are also supported for built-in
 functions, types and modules; however this feature hasn't been widely
-used yet.  See the 'new' module for an example.
+used yet.  See the 'new' module for an example.  (Basically, the type
+object's tp_doc field contains the doc string for the type, and the
+4th member of the methodlist structure contains the doc string for the
+method.)
 
 - The __coerce__ and __cmp__ methods for user-defined classes once
 again work as expected.  As an example, there's a new standard class
@@ -53,62 +75,68 @@ Complex in the library.
 - The functions posix.popen() and posix.fdopen() now have an optional
 third argument to specify the buffer size, and default their second
 (mode) argument to 'r' -- in analogy to the builtin open() function.
+The same applies to posixfile.open() and the socket method makefile().
+
+- The thread.exit_thread() function now raises SystemExit so that
+'finally' clauses are honored and a memory leak is plugged.
+
+- Improved X11 and Motif support, by Sjoerd Mullender.  This extension
+is being maintained and distributed separately.
+
+- Improved support for the Apple Macintosh, in part by Jack Jansen,
+e.g. interfaces to (a few) resource mananger functions, get/set file
+type and creator, gestalt, sound manager, speech manager, MacTCP, comm
+toolbox, and the think C console library.  This is being maintained
+and distributed separately.
 
-- Improved support for the Apple Macintosh, e.g. interfaces to (a few)
-resource mananger functions, get/set file type and creator, gestalt,
-sound manager, speech manager, MacTCP, comm toolbox, and the think C
-console library.  (Sorry, no Mac binary yet.  Will try to produce one
-shortly, plus instructions on how to compile with THINK C 6.0.)
+- Improved version for Windows NT, by Mark Hammond.  This is being
+maintained and distributed separately.
 
 - Used autoconf 2.0 to generate the configure script.  Adapted
 configure.in to use the new features in autoconf 2.0.
 
-- It should now build on the NeXT without intervention, even on the
-3.3 Sparc pre-release.
-
-- __import__ is now called with 4 arguments:
-(modulename, globals, locals, fromlist)
+- It now builds on the NeXT without intervention, even on the 3.3
+Sparc pre-release.
 
 - Characters passed to isspace() and friends are masked to nonnegative
-values
+values.
 
-- Correctly compute pow(-3.0, 3)
+- Correctly compute pow(-3.0, 3).
 
 - Fix portability problems with getopt (configure now checks for a
-non-GNU getopt)
-
-- Don't add frozenmain.o to libPython.a
+non-GNU getopt).
 
-- Exceptions can now be classes
+- Don't add frozenmain.o to libPython.a.
 
-- The socket module exports a long list of socket related symbols
+- Exceptions can now be classes.  ALl built-in exceptions are still
+string objects, but this will change in the future.
 
-- Lots of Mac specific changes (this area of the source is not
-completed!)
+- The socket module exports a long list of socket related symbols.
+(More built-in modules will export their symbolic constants instead of
+relying on a separately generated Python module.)
 
-- When a module object is deleted, it clears out its own dictionary
-(this fixes a circularity in the references between functions and
-their global dictionary)
+- When a module object is deleted, it clears out its own dictionary.
+This fixes a circularity in the references between functions and
+their global dictionary.
 
-- Changed the error handling by [new]getargs() e.g. for "O&"
+- Changed the error handling by [new]getargs() e.g. for "O&".
 
 - Dynamic loading of modules using shared libraries is supported for
-several new platforms
+several new platforms.
 
-- Support "O&" in mkvalue()
+- Support "O&", "[...]" and "{...}" in mkvalue().
 
 - Extension to findmethod(): findmethodinchain() (where a chain is a
-linked list of methodlist arrays)
-
-- Callable() function is now public
-
-
-Known bugs still remaining:
----------------------------
+linked list of methodlist arrays).  The calling interface for
+findmethod() has changed: it now gets a pointer to the (static!)
+methodlist structure rather than just to the function name -- this
+saves copying flags etc. into the (short-lived) method object.
 
-- There's still a memory leak in threads; bigger when
-thread.exit_thread() is used
+- The callable() function is now public.
 
+- Object types can define a few new operations by setting function
+pointers in the type object structure: tp_call defines how an object
+is called, and tp_str defines how an object's str() is computed.
 
---Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl>
-URL:  <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html>
+--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <mailto:guido@cwi.nl>
+<http://www.cwi.nl/~guido/>