New features of the 3.2 series, compared to 3.1

Python 3.2 is a continuation of the efforts to improve and stabilize the Python 3.x line. Since the final release of Python 2.7, the 2.x line will only receive bugfixes, and new features are developed for 3.x only.

Since PEP 3003, the Moratorium on Language Changes, is in effect, there are no changes in Python's syntax and only few changes to built-in types in Python 3.2. Development efforts concentrated on the standard library and support for porting code to Python 3. Highlights are:

• numerous improvements to the unittest module
• PEP 3147, support for .pyc repository directories
• PEP 3149, support for version tagged dynamic libraries
• PEP 3148, a new futures library for concurrent programming
• PEP 384, a stable ABI for extension modules
• PEP 391, dictionary-based logging configuration
• an overhauled GIL implementation that reduces contention
• an extended email package that handles bytes messages
• a much improved ssl module with support for SSL contexts and certificate hostname matching
• a sysconfig module to access configuration information
• additions to the shutil module, among them archive file support
• many enhancements to configparser, among them mapping protocol support
• improvements to pdb, the Python debugger
• countless fixes regarding bytes/string issues; among them full support for a bytes environment (filenames, environment variables)
• many consistency and behavior fixes for numeric operations

More resources

• What's new in 3.2?
• Change log for this release.
• Online Documentation
• Report bugs at http://bugs.python.org.
• Help fund Python and its community.

This is a preview release, and its use is not recommended in production settings.