\chapter{New in Release 1.4}

This chapter describes additions to the Python language and library in

version 1.4.

\begin{itemize}

Power operator. \code{x**y} is equivalent to \code{pow(x, y)}.

Complex numbers. Imaginary literals are writen with a \code{'j'}

suffix (\code{'J'} is allowed for consistency.) Complex numbers with

a nonzero real component are written as

\code{(\var{real}+\var{imag}j)}. The usual arithmetic operators on

complex numbers are supported, so that e.g. \code{1j**2} equals

\code{-1.0}. Module \code{cmath} provides versions of all math

functions that take complex arguments and return complex results.

(Module \code{math} only supports real numbers, so that

\code{math.sqrt(-1)} still raises a \code{ValueError} exception.)

New indexing syntax. It is now possible to use a tuple as an indexing

expression for a mapping object without parenthesizing it,

e.g. \code{x[1, 2, 3]}.

New slicing syntax. In support of the Numerical Python extension

(distributed separately), slice indices of the form

\code{x[lo:hi:stride]} are possible, multiple slice indices separated by

commas are allowed, and an index position may be replaced by ellipses,

as follows: \code{x[a, ..., z]}. There's also a new built-in function

\code{slice(lo, hi, stride)} and a new built-in object

\code{Ellipses}, which yield the same effect without using special

syntax. None of the standard sequence types support indexing with

slice objects or ellipses yet. Note that when any of these extensions

are used, the mapping interface for indexing will be used.

XXX More!!!

\end{itemize}