Review and Preview

The following is a review of the major changes from Python 1.5.2 to 1.6, along with the expected bug fixes and module updates (new, revised, and obsoleted modules).

  • Unicode support

  • String methods

  • Upgraded regular expression engine (performance and Unicode enhancements)

  • New function invocation mechanism

The 2.0 release also features the usual fixes and module updates, but in addition, offers the following new features to the language:

  • Augmented assignment

  • List comprehensions

  • Extended import statement

  • Extended print statement

Once you get Python 2.0 compiled and/or installed on your system, you will see the familiar start-up line in UNIX (or similar if you are using another platform):

 % python Python 2.0 (#4, Oct 2 2000, 23:58:52) ...

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