From: Guido van Rossum <guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>
Subject: Python 1.5.2 beta 1 released
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 98 04:49:12 GMT

I'm pleased to announce the release of Python version 1.5.2 beta 1.
PSA members won't be too surprised when they compare it to version
1.5.2a2, but if you're used to 1.5.1 or 1.5, this is a Big Step
Forward.

I'm quite confident that this version works well, but it is still a
beta version, so you might not want to install it in a production
environment.  However, it is worth checking out if you have any
problems building it or running your favorite applications.  I can use
the feedback!

Please mail all trouble reports to guido@python.org.  I can't promise
that I will be able to read the newsgroup, as I'm going away for 10
days on Christmas Eve.  You may still want to cc trouble reports to
the newsgroup (via python-list@cwi.nl), because while I'm away others
may be able to provide fixes for urgent problems.

I plan to release one more beta early in January and then release the
final version of 1.5.2 later that month.  That will conclude the 1.5
development cycle; while I may release some essential patches later,
my main development focus will be on Pytohn 1.6 (with 2.0 on the
horizon -- 1.6 will probably be the last of the 1.x versions).

What's new?  Too much to list here; many bugs have been fixed,
performance has been cranked up a notch, quite a few new or improved
modules are present.  See Misc/NEWS in the distribution for the full
scoop.  There are very few incompatibilities -- if you find one that's
a problem for you, please let me know.  I did increment the API
version, so if you have old extensions lying around you might get a
warning message (but they should still work, unless they were using
questionalbe APIs).

Please check out IDLE, an Integrated DeveLopment Environment for
Python that I implemented using Tkinter (so it requires Tcl/Tk).  It's
in Tools/idle in the distribution (also in the Windows installer).
Features include:

    - editor with auto-indent, multiple undo, colorizing, word completion
    - Python shell (interpreter) window with command history
    - debugger and stack viewer
    - class browser

The distribution is accessible via FTP, at the following URLs:

    ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/src/py152b1.tgz	(source)
    ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/win32/py152b1.exe	(Windows installer)

Fred Drake will release the documentation package separately; the
Windows installer includes full documentation in HTML form.

I would like to thank the many volunteers, at CNRI and elsewhere, who
contributed considerably to this release.

Happy Holidays,

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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