Subject: Python 2.0b1 is released!
From: Guido van Rossum <guido@beopen.com>
To: python-list@python.org, python-announce-list@python.org
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 23:49:27 -0500
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python

A unique event in all the history of Python: two releases on the same
day!  (At least in my timezone. :-)

Python 2.0b1 is released.  The BeOpen PythonLabs and our cast of
SourceForge volunteers have been working on this version on which
since May.  Please go here to pick it up:

    http://www.pythonlabs.com/tech/python2.0/

There's a tarball and a Windows installer, online documentation (with
a new color scheme :-), RPMs, and a long list of new features.  OK, a
teaser:

  - Augmented assignment, e.g. x += 1
  - List comprehensions, e.g. [x**2 for x in range(10)]
  - Extended import statement, e.g. import Module as Name
  - Extended print statement, e.g. print >> file, "Hello"
  - Optional collection of cyclical garbage

There's one bit of sad news: according to Richard Stallman, this
version is no more compatible with the GPL than version 1.6 that was
released this morning by CNRI, because of a technicality concerning
the choice of law provision in the CNRI license.  Because 2.0b1 has to
be considered a derivative work of 1.6, this technicality in the CNRI
license applies to 2.0 too (and to any other derivative works of 1.6).
CNRI is still trying to work this out with Stallman, so I hope that we
will be able to release future versions of Python under a
GPL-compatible license.

There's Only One Way To Do It.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.pythonlabs.com/~guido/)