Add description of PEP235

akuchling · akuchling · commit 8bad993dd375 · 2001-02-28T22:39:15.000Z
Remove references to 2.1alpha
Update description of PEP229
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew21.tex
@@ -34,9 +34,8 @@ \section{Introduction}
 Refer to the Python 2.1 documentation, or to the specific PEP, for
 more details about any new feature that particularly interests you.
 
-Currently 2.1 is available in an alpha release, but the release
-schedule calls for a beta release by late February 2001, and a final
-release in April 2001.
+Currently 2.1 is available in a beta release, and the final release is
+planned for April 2001.
 
 %======================================================================
 \section{PEP 227: Nested Scopes}
@@ -308,25 +307,18 @@ \section{PEP 229: New Build System}
 enable modules, a \file{setup.py} script in the top directory of the
 Python source distribution is run at build time, and attempts to
 discover which modules can be enabled by examining the modules and
-header files on the system.  In 2.1alpha1, there's very little you can
-do to change \file{setup.py}'s behaviour, or to discover why a given
-module isn't compiled.  If you run into problems in 2.1alpha1, please
-report them, and be prepared to dive into \file{setup.py} in order to
-fix autodetection of a given library on your system.  In the alpha2
-release I plan to add ways to have more control over what the script
-does (probably command-line arguments to \file{configure} or to
-\file{setup.py}).
-
-If it turns out to be impossible to make autodetection work reliably,
-it's possible that this change may become an optional build method
-instead of the default, or it may even be backed out completely.
+header files on the system.  If a module is configured in
+\file{Modules/Setup}, the \file{setup.py} script won't attempt to
+compile that module and will defer to the \file{Modules/Setup} file's
+contents.  This provides a way to specific any strange command-line
+flags or libraries that are required for a specific platform.
 
 In another far-reaching change to the build mechanism, Neil
 Schemenauer restructured things so Python now uses a single makefile
 that isn't recursive, instead of makefiles in the top directory and in
-each of the Python/, Parser/, Objects/, and Modules/ subdirectories.
-This makes building Python faster, and also makes the build process
-clearer and simpler.
+each of the \file{Python/}, \file{Parser/}, \file{Objects/}, and
+\file{Modules/} subdirectories.  This makes building Python faster
+and also makes hacking the Makefiles clearer and simpler.
 
 \begin{seealso} 
 
@@ -429,7 +421,19 @@ \section{PEP 205: Weak References}
 %======================================================================
 \section{PEP 235: Case-Insensitive Platforms and \keyword{import}}
 
-XXX
+Some operating systems have filesystems that are case-insensitive,
+MacOS and Windows being the primary examples; on these systems, it's
+impossible to distinguish the filenames \samp{FILE.PY} and
+\samp{file.py}, even though they do store the file's name 
+in its original case (they're case-preserving, too).
+
+In Python 2.1, the \keyword{import} statement will work to simulate
+case-sensitivity on case-insensitive platforms.  Python will now
+search for the first case-sensitive match by default, raising an
+\exception{ImportError} if no such file is found, so \code{import file}
+will not import a module named \samp{FILE.PY}.  Case-insensitive
+matching can be requested by setting the PYTHONCASEOK environment
+variable before starting the Python interpreter.
 
 %======================================================================
 \section{PEP 217: Interactive Display Hook}
