Python 2.3 is out [LWN.net]

Following last week's release of Python 2.3c2, the final Python 2.3 release has been announced. [Python]

Nineteen months in the making, Python 2.3 represents a commitment to stability and improved performance, with a minimum of new language features. Countless bugs and memory leaks have been fixed, many new and updated modules have been added, and the new type/class system introduced in Python 2.2 has been significantly improved. Python 2.3 can be up to 30% faster than Python 2.2.

Some of the highlights of this release include:

A new version of the Python IDE, IDLE.
A large collection of new and improved library modules.
Lots of new and improved built-in functions.
Deprecation of obsolete functions.
New doctest extensions.
Extended slice capabilities.
A universal newline mode for reading files with different newline types.
Source code encoding declarations.
The ability to import from zip files.
FutureWarnings for performing unsigned operations on integers.
Improved list.sort() speed.
Sped up multiplication of longs.
A more efficient pickling protocol.
Optional timeouts on all socket module operations.
Tkinter GUI improvements.
A new boolean type.
Better support for comma-delimited files.

A.M. Kuchling has put together a detailed list of PEPs and changes in his What's New in Python 2.3 document. For those who wish to give Python 2.3 a spin, the official Python 2.3 home page has source code and more documentation.

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