Credit patch from Raymond

Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex

@@ -756,11 +756,13 @@ language.
 
 \item The \method{dict.update()} method now accepts the same
 argument forms as the \class{dict} constructor.  This includes any
-mapping, any iterable of key/value pairs, and keyword arguments.       
+mapping, any iterable of key/value pairs, and keyword arguments.
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The string methods \method{ljust()}, \method{rjust()}, and
 \method{center()} now take an optional argument for specifying a
 fill character other than a space.
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item Strings also gained an \method{rsplit()} method that
 works like the \method{split()} method but splits from the end of
@@ -776,6 +778,7 @@ the string.
 \item The \method{sort()} method of lists gained three keyword
 arguments: \var{cmp}, \var{key}, and \var{reverse}.  These arguments
 make some common usages of \method{sort()} simpler.  All are optional.
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \var{cmp} is the same as the previous single argument to
 \method{sort()}; if provided, the value should be a comparison
@@ -860,6 +863,8 @@ red 1
 yellow 5
 \end{verbatim}
 
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
+
 \item Integer operations will no longer trigger an \exception{OverflowWarning}.
 The \exception{OverflowWarning} warning will disappear in Python 2.5.
 
@@ -884,7 +889,8 @@ Python dictionary.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 >>> transpose([])
 []
 \end{verbatim}
-
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
+    
 \item Encountering a failure while importing a module no longer leaves
 a partially-initialized module object in \code{sys.modules}.  The
 incomplete module object left behind would fool further imports of the
@@ -892,6 +898,7 @@ same module into succeeding, leading to confusing errors.
 
 \item \constant{None} is now a constant; code that binds a new value to 
 the name \samp{None} is now a syntax error.
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)       
 
 \end{itemize}
 
@@ -906,6 +913,7 @@ the name \samp{None} is now a syntax error.
  were also optimized for dictionaries, resulting in performance boosts for
  \method{keys()}, \method{values()}, \method{items()},
  \method{iterkeys()}, \method{itervalues()}, and \method{iteritems()}.
+ (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The machinery for growing and shrinking lists was optimized for
  speed and for space efficiency.  Appending and popping from lists now
@@ -913,12 +921,12 @@ the name \samp{None} is now a syntax error.
  the underlying system \cfunction{realloc()}.  List comprehensions
  also benefit.   \method{list.extend()} was also optimized and no
  longer converts its argument into a temporary list before extending
- the base list.
+ the base list.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item \function{list()}, \function{tuple()}, \function{map()},
   \function{filter()}, and \function{zip()} now run several times
   faster with non-sequence arguments that supply a \method{__len__()}
-  method.  
+  method.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The methods \method{list.__getitem__()},
   \method{dict.__getitem__()}, and \method{dict.__contains__()} are
@@ -927,10 +935,11 @@ the name \samp{None} is now a syntax error.
   access doubles their performance and makes them more suitable for
   use as arguments to functionals:
   \samp{map(mydict.__getitem__, keylist)}.
+  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item Added a new opcode, \code{LIST_APPEND}, that simplifies
   the generated bytecode for list comprehensions and speeds them up
-  by about a third.
+  by about a third.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item String concatenations in statements of the form \code{s = s +
 "abc"} and \code{s += "abc"} are now performed more efficiently in
@@ -938,6 +947,7 @@ certain circumstances.  This optimization won't be present in other
 Python implementations such as Jython, so you shouldn't rely on it;
 using the \method{join()} method of strings is still recommended when
 you want to efficiently glue a large number of strings together.
+(Contributed by Armin Rigo.)       
 
 \end{itemize}
 
@@ -1015,7 +1025,7 @@ True
 
 Several modules now take advantage of \class{collections.deque} for
 improved performance, such as the \module{Queue} and
-\module{threading} modules.
+\module{threading} modules.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The \module{ConfigParser} classes have been enhanced slightly.
    The \method{read()} method now returns a list of the files that
@@ -1044,7 +1054,7 @@ any problems as a \member{defect} attribute of the message.
    high volumes of data.  In addition, the module has two new functions
    \function{nlargest()} and \function{nsmallest()} that use heaps to
    find the N largest or smallest values in a dataset without the
-   expense of a full sort.
+   expense of a full sort.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The \module{imaplib} module now supports IMAP's THREAD command
 (contributed by Yves Dionne) and new \method{deleteacl()} and
@@ -1103,6 +1113,8 @@ r ['r', 'r']
 [('a', 5), ('b', 2), ('c', 1), ('d', 1), ('r', 2)]
 \end{verbatim}
 
+(Contributed by Hye-Shik Chang.)
+
 \item \module{itertools} also gained a function named
 \function{tee(\var{iterator}, \var{N})} that returns \var{N} independent
 iterators that replicate \var{iterator}.  If \var{N} is omitted, the
@@ -1127,6 +1139,7 @@ If the separation is large, then you might as well use
 \function{list()} instead.  When the iterators track closely with one
 another, \function{tee()} is ideal.  Possible applications include
 bookmarking, windowing, or lookahead iterators.
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)       
 
 \item  A number of functions were added to the \module{locale} 
 module, such as \function{bind_textdomain_codeset()} to specify a
@@ -1176,6 +1189,8 @@ data extractors when used with \function{map()} or
 [('d', 1), ('c', 2), ('b', 3), ('a', 4)]
 \end{verbatim}
 
+(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)       
+
 \item The \module{optparse} module was updated.  The module now passes
 its messages through \function{gettext.gettext()}, making it possible
 to internationalize Optik's help and error messages.  Help messages
@@ -1203,12 +1218,14 @@ not it's a symbolic link.  This differs from the existing
 \item The \module{poplib} module now supports POP over SSL.
 
 \item The \module{profile} module can now profile C extension functions.
-% XXX more to say about this? 
+% XXX more to say about this?
+(Contributed by Nick Bastin.)
 
 \item The \module{random} module has a new method called \method{getrandbits(N)} 
    which returns an N-bit long integer.  This method supports the existing
    \method{randrange()} method, making it possible to efficiently generate
    arbitrarily large random numbers.
+   (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The regular expression language accepted by the \module{re} module
    was extended with simple conditional expressions, written as
@@ -1261,11 +1278,12 @@ Other threads can assign and retrieve their own values for the
 
 \item The \module{timeit} module now automatically disables periodic
   garbarge collection during the timing loop.  This change makes
-  consecutive timings more comparable.
+  consecutive timings more comparable.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The \module{weakref} module now supports a wider variety of objects
    including Python functions, class instances, sets, frozensets, deques,
    arrays, files, sockets, and regular expression pattern objects.
+   (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item The \module{xmlrpclib} module now supports a multi-call extension for 
 transmitting multiple XML-RPC calls in a single HTTP operation.
@@ -1315,18 +1333,19 @@ Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:
   \item Three new convenience macros were added for common return
   values from extension functions: \csimplemacro{Py_RETURN_NONE},
   \csimplemacro{Py_RETURN_TRUE}, and \csimplemacro{Py_RETURN_FALSE}.
+  (Contributed by Brett Cannon.)
 
   \item Another new macro, \csimplemacro{Py_CLEAR(\var{obj})}, 
   decreases the reference count of \var{obj} and sets \var{obj} to the
-  null pointer.
+  null pointer.  (Contributed by Jim Fulton.)
 
   \item A new function, \cfunction{PyTuple_Pack(\var{N}, \var{obj1},
   \var{obj2}, ..., \var{objN})}, constructs tuples from a variable
-  length argument list of Python objects.
+  length argument list of Python objects.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
   \item A new function, \cfunction{PyDict_Contains(\var{d}, \var{k})},
   implements fast dictionary lookups without masking exceptions raised
-  during the look-up process.
+  during the look-up process.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
   \item A new function, \cfunction{PyArg_VaParseTupleAndKeywords()},
   is the same as \cfunction{PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords()} but takes a 
@@ -1336,7 +1355,7 @@ Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:
   \item A new method flag, \constant{METH_COEXISTS}, allows a function
   defined in slots to co-exist with a \ctype{PyCFunction} having the
   same name.  This can halve the access time for a method such as
-  \method{set.__contains__()}.
+  \method{set.__contains__()}.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
   \item Python can now be built with additional profiling for the
   interpreter itself.  This is intended for people developing on the
@@ -1359,6 +1378,7 @@ Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:
 \begin{itemize}
 
 \item The Windows port now builds under MSVC++ 7.1 as well as version 6.
+  (Contributed by Martin von Loewis.)
 
 \end{itemize}
 
@@ -1375,6 +1395,7 @@ changes to your code:
 \item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()}
   now return  an empty list instead of raising a \exception{TypeError}
   exception if called with no arguments.
+  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
 
 \item \function{dircache.listdir()} now passes exceptions to the caller
       instead of returning empty lists.