This is Python version 3.2

==========================

Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Python Software Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Python 3.x is a new version of the language, which is incompatible with the

2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details,

especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have

changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been

removed.

Build Instructions

------------------

On Unix, Linux, BSD, OSX, and Cygwin:

./configure

make

make test

sudo make install

This will install Python as python3.

You can pass many options to the configure script; run "./configure

--help" to find out more. On OSX and Cygwin, the executable is called

python.exe; elsewhere it's just python.

On Mac OS X, if you have configured Python with --enable-framework,

you should use "make frameworkinstall" to do the installation. Note

that this installs the Python executable in a place that is not

normally on your PATH, you may want to set up a symlink in

/usr/local/bin.

On Windows, see PCbuild/readme.txt.

If you wish, you can create a subdirectory and invoke configure from

there. For example:

mkdir debug

cd debug

../configure --with-pydebug

make

make test

(This will fail if you *also* built at the top-level directory. You

should do a "make clean" at the toplevel first.)

What's New

----------

We try to have a comprehensive overview of the changes in the "What's New in

Python 3.1" document, found at

http://docs.python.org/dev/3.1/whatsnew/3.1.html

For a more detailed change log, read Misc/NEWS (though this file, too,

is incomplete, and also doesn't list anything merged in from the 2.7

release under development).

If you want to install multiple versions of Python see the section below

entitled "Installing multiple versions".

Documentation

-------------

Documentation for Python 3.1 is online, updated twice a day:

http://docs.python.org/dev/3.1/

All documentation is also available online at the Python web site

(http://docs.python.org/, see below). It is available online for

occasional reference, or can be downloaded in many formats for faster

access. The documentation is downloadable in HTML, PostScript, PDF,

LaTeX (through 2.5), and reStructuredText (2.6+) formats; the LaTeX and

reStructuredText versions are primarily for documentation authors,

translators, and people with special formatting requirements.

Converting From Python 2.x to 3.x

---------------------------------

Python starting with 2.6 will contain features to help locating code that

needs to be changed, such as optional warnings when deprecated features are

used, and backported versions of certain key Python 3.x features.

A source-to-source translation tool, "2to3", can take care of the mundane task

of converting large amounts of source code. It is not a complete solution but

is complemented by the deprecation warnings in 2.6. See

http://docs.python.org/dev/py3k/library/2to3.html for more information.

Testing

-------

To test the interpreter, type "make test" in the top-level directory.

This runs the test set twice (once with no compiled files, once with

the compiled files left by the previous test run). The test set

produces some output. You can generally ignore the messages about

skipped tests due to optional features which can't be imported.

If a message is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core

dump is produced, something is wrong. On some Linux systems (those

that are not yet using glibc 6), test_strftime fails due to a

non-standard implementation of strftime() in the C library. Please

ignore this, or upgrade to glibc version 6.

By default, tests are prevented from overusing resources like disk space and

memory. To enable these tests, run "make testall".

IMPORTANT: If the tests fail and you decide to mail a bug report,

*don't* include the output of "make test". It is useless. Run the

failing test manually, as follows:

./python Lib/test/regrtest.py -v test_whatever

(substituting the top of the source tree for '.' if you built in a

different directory). This runs the test in verbose mode.

Installing multiple versions

----------------------------

On Unix and Mac systems if you intend to install multiple versions of Python

using the same installation prefix (--prefix argument to the configure

script) you must take care that your primary python executable is not

overwritten by the installation of a different version. All files and

directories installed using "make altinstall" contain the major and minor

version and can thus live side-by-side. "make install" also creates

${prefix}/bin/python3 which refers to ${prefix}/bin/pythonX.Y. If you intend

to install multiple versions using the same prefix you must decide which

version (if any) is your "primary" version. Install that version using

"make install". Install all other versions using "make altinstall".

For example, if you want to install Python 2.5, 2.6 and 3.0 with 2.6 being

the primary version, you would execute "make install" in your 2.6 build

directory and "make altinstall" in the others.

Issue Tracker and Mailing List

------------------------------

We're soliciting bug reports about all aspects of the language. Fixes

are also welcome, preferable in unified diff format. Please use the

issue tracker:

http://bugs.python.org/

If you're not sure whether you're dealing with a bug or a feature, use

the mailing list:

[email protected]

To subscribe to the list, use the mailman form:

http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev/

Proposals for enhancement

-------------------------

If you have a proposal to change Python, you may want to send an email to the

comp.lang.python or python-ideas mailing lists for inital feedback. A Python

Enhancement Proposal (PEP) may be submitted if your idea gains ground. All

current PEPs, as well as guidelines for submitting a new PEP, are listed at

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/.

Release Schedule

----------------

See PEP 375 for release details: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0375/

Copyright and License Information

---------------------------------

Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Python Software Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2000 BeOpen.com.

All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 1995-2001 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.

All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum.

All rights reserved.

See the file "LICENSE" for information on the history of this

software, terms & conditions for usage, and a DISCLAIMER OF ALL

WARRANTIES.

This Python distribution contains *no* GNU General Public License

(GPL) code, so it may be used in proprietary projects. There are

interfaces to some GNU code but these are entirely optional.

All trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective

holders.