diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst | 46 |
1 files changed, 23 insertions, 23 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst index 9d339a5a73..5973f3b3a6 100644 --- a/Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst +++ b/Doc/whatsnew/2.4.rst @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ PEP 218: Built-In Set Objects Python 2.3 introduced the :mod:`sets` module. C implementations of set data types have now been added to the Python core as two new built-in types, -:func:`set(iterable)` and :func:`frozenset(iterable)`. They provide high speed +``set(iterable)`` and ``frozenset(iterable)``. They provide high speed operations for membership testing, for eliminating duplicates from sequences, and for mathematical operations like unions, intersections, differences, and symmetric differences. :: @@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ returned. PEP 322: Reverse Iteration ========================== -A new built-in function, :func:`reversed(seq)`, takes a sequence and returns an +A new built-in function, ``reversed(seq)``, takes a sequence and returns an iterator that loops over the elements of the sequence in reverse order. :: >>> for i in reversed(xrange(1,4)): @@ -384,7 +384,7 @@ PEP 324: New subprocess Module The standard library provides a number of ways to execute a subprocess, offering different features and different levels of complexity. -:func:`os.system(command)` is easy to use, but slow (it runs a shell process +``os.system(command)`` is easy to use, but slow (it runs a shell process which executes the command) and dangerous (you have to be careful about escaping the shell's metacharacters). The :mod:`popen2` module offers classes that can capture standard output and standard error from the subprocess, but the naming @@ -431,8 +431,8 @@ The constructor has a number of handy options: Once you've created the :class:`Popen` instance, you can call its :meth:`wait` method to pause until the subprocess has exited, :meth:`poll` to check if it's -exited without pausing, or :meth:`communicate(data)` to send the string *data* -to the subprocess's standard input. :meth:`communicate(data)` then reads any +exited without pausing, or ``communicate(data)`` to send the string *data* +to the subprocess's standard input. ``communicate(data)`` then reads any data that the subprocess has sent to its standard output or standard error, returning a tuple ``(stdout_data, stderr_data)``. @@ -749,10 +749,10 @@ numbers in the current locale. The solution described in the PEP is to add three new functions to the Python API that perform ASCII-only conversions, ignoring the locale setting: -* :c:func:`PyOS_ascii_strtod(str, ptr)` and :c:func:`PyOS_ascii_atof(str, ptr)` +* ``PyOS_ascii_strtod(str, ptr)`` and ``PyOS_ascii_atof(str, ptr)`` both convert a string to a C :c:type:`double`. -* :c:func:`PyOS_ascii_formatd(buffer, buf_len, format, d)` converts a +* ``PyOS_ascii_formatd(buffer, buf_len, format, d)`` converts a :c:type:`double` to an ASCII string. The code for these functions came from the GLib library @@ -778,7 +778,7 @@ Here are all of the changes that Python 2.4 makes to the core Python language. * Decorators for functions and methods were added (:pep:`318`). * Built-in :func:`set` and :func:`frozenset` types were added (:pep:`218`). - Other new built-ins include the :func:`reversed(seq)` function (:pep:`322`). + Other new built-ins include the ``reversed(seq)`` function (:pep:`322`). * Generator expressions were added (:pep:`289`). @@ -846,7 +846,7 @@ Here are all of the changes that Python 2.4 makes to the core Python language. ['A', 'b', 'c', 'D'] Finally, the *reverse* parameter takes a Boolean value. If the value is true, - the list will be sorted into reverse order. Instead of ``L.sort() ; + the list will be sorted into reverse order. Instead of ``L.sort(); L.reverse()``, you can now write ``L.sort(reverse=True)``. The results of sorting are now guaranteed to be stable. This means that two @@ -857,7 +857,7 @@ Here are all of the changes that Python 2.4 makes to the core Python language. (All changes to :meth:`sort` contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) -* There is a new built-in function :func:`sorted(iterable)` that works like the +* There is a new built-in function ``sorted(iterable)`` that works like the in-place :meth:`list.sort` method but can be used in expressions. The differences are: @@ -898,8 +898,8 @@ Here are all of the changes that Python 2.4 makes to the core Python language. For example, you can now run the Python profiler with ``python -m profile``. (Contributed by Nick Coghlan.) -* The :func:`eval(expr, globals, locals)` and :func:`execfile(filename, globals, - locals)` functions and the ``exec`` statement now accept any mapping type +* The ``eval(expr, globals, locals)`` and ``execfile(filename, globals, + locals)`` functions and the ``exec`` statement now accept any mapping type for the *locals* parameter. Previously this had to be a regular Python dictionary. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) @@ -1090,7 +1090,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. Yves Dionne) and new :meth:`deleteacl` and :meth:`myrights` methods (contributed by Arnaud Mazin). -* The :mod:`itertools` module gained a :func:`groupby(iterable[, *func*])` +* The :mod:`itertools` module gained a ``groupby(iterable[, *func*])`` function. *iterable* is something that can be iterated over to return a stream of elements, and the optional *func* parameter is a function that takes an element and returns a key value; if omitted, the key is simply the element @@ -1139,7 +1139,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. (Contributed by Hye-Shik Chang.) -* :mod:`itertools` also gained a function named :func:`tee(iterator, N)` that +* :mod:`itertools` also gained a function named ``tee(iterator, N)`` that returns *N* independent iterators that replicate *iterator*. If *N* is omitted, the default is 2. :: @@ -1177,7 +1177,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. level=0, # Log all messages format='%(levelname):%(process):%(thread):%(message)') - Other additions to the :mod:`logging` package include a :meth:`log(level, msg)` + Other additions to the :mod:`logging` package include a ``log(level, msg)`` convenience method, as well as a :class:`TimedRotatingFileHandler` class that rotates its log files at a timed interval. The module already had :class:`RotatingFileHandler`, which rotated logs once the file exceeded a @@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. group or for a range of groups. (Contributed by Jürgen A. Erhard.) * Two new functions were added to the :mod:`operator` module, - :func:`attrgetter(attr)` and :func:`itemgetter(index)`. Both functions return + ``attrgetter(attr)`` and ``itemgetter(index)``. Both functions return callables that take a single argument and return the corresponding attribute or item; these callables make excellent data extractors when used with :func:`map` or :func:`sorted`. For example:: @@ -1223,14 +1223,14 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. replacement for :func:`rfc822.formatdate`. You may want to write new e-mail processing code with this in mind. (Change implemented by Anthony Baxter.) -* A new :func:`urandom(n)` function was added to the :mod:`os` module, returning +* A new ``urandom(n)`` function was added to the :mod:`os` module, returning a string containing *n* bytes of random data. This function provides access to platform-specific sources of randomness such as :file:`/dev/urandom` on Linux or the Windows CryptoAPI. (Contributed by Trevor Perrin.) -* Another new function: :func:`os.path.lexists(path)` returns true if the file +* Another new function: ``os.path.lexists(path)`` returns true if the file specified by *path* exists, whether or not it's a symbolic link. This differs - from the existing :func:`os.path.exists(path)` function, which returns false if + from the existing ``os.path.exists(path)`` function, which returns false if *path* is a symlink that points to a destination that doesn't exist. (Contributed by Beni Cherniavsky.) @@ -1243,7 +1243,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. * The :mod:`profile` module can now profile C extension functions. (Contributed by Nick Bastin.) -* The :mod:`random` module has a new method called :meth:`getrandbits(N)` that +* The :mod:`random` module has a new method called ``getrandbits(N)`` that returns a long integer *N* bits in length. The existing :meth:`randrange` method now uses :meth:`getrandbits` where appropriate, making generation of arbitrarily large random numbers more efficient. (Contributed by Raymond @@ -1272,7 +1272,7 @@ complete list of changes, or look through the CVS logs for all the details. this, but 2.4 will raise a :exc:`RuntimeError` exception. * Two new functions were added to the :mod:`socket` module. :func:`socketpair` - returns a pair of connected sockets and :func:`getservbyport(port)` looks up the + returns a pair of connected sockets and ``getservbyport(port)`` looks up the service name for a given port number. (Contributed by Dave Cole and Barry Warsaw.) @@ -1454,11 +1454,11 @@ Some of the changes to Python's build process and to the C API are: * Another new macro, :c:macro:`Py_CLEAR(obj)`, decreases the reference count of *obj* and sets *obj* to the null pointer. (Contributed by Jim Fulton.) -* A new function, :c:func:`PyTuple_Pack(N, obj1, obj2, ..., objN)`, constructs +* A new function, ``PyTuple_Pack(N, obj1, obj2, ..., objN)``, constructs tuples from a variable length argument list of Python objects. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) -* A new function, :c:func:`PyDict_Contains(d, k)`, implements fast dictionary +* A new function, ``PyDict_Contains(d, k)``, implements fast dictionary lookups without masking exceptions raised during the look-up process. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.) |