Some of the changes to Python's build process and to the C API are:
- Three new convenience macros were added for common return
values from extension functions: Py_RETURN_NONE,
Py_RETURN_TRUE, and Py_RETURN_FALSE.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon.)
- Another new macro, Py_CLEAR(obj),
decreases the reference count of obj and sets obj to the
null pointer. (Contributed by Jim Fulton.)
- A new function, PyTuple_Pack(N, obj1,
obj2, ..., objN), constructs tuples from a variable
length argument list of Python objects. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
- A new function, PyDict_Contains(d, k),
implements fast dictionary lookups without masking exceptions raised
during the look-up process. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
- The Py_IS_NAN(X) macro returns 1 if
its float or double argument X is a NaN.
(Contributed by Tim Peters.)
- C code can avoid unnecessary locking by using the new
PyEval_ThreadsInitialized() function to tell
if any thread operations have been performed. If this function
returns false, no lock operations are needed.
(Contributed by Nick Coghlan.)
- A new function, PyArg_VaParseTupleAndKeywords(),
is the same as PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords() but takes a
va_list instead of a number of arguments.
(Contributed by Greg Chapman.)
- A new method flag, METH_COEXISTS, allows a function
defined in slots to co-exist with a PyCFunction having the
same name. This can halve the access time for a method such as
set.__contains__(). (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger.)
- Python can now be built with additional profiling for the
interpreter itself, intended as an aid to people developing the
Python core. Providing --enable-profiling to the
configure script will let you profile the interpreter with
gprof, and providing the --with-tsc
switch enables profiling using the Pentium's Time-Stamp-Counter
register. Note that the --with-tsc switch is slightly
misnamed, because the profiling feature also works on the PowerPC
platform, though that processor architecture doesn't call that
register ``the TSC register''. (Contributed by Jeremy Hylton.)
- The tracebackobject type has been renamed to PyTracebackObject.
- The Windows port now builds under MSVC++ 7.1 as well as version 6.
(Contributed by Martin von Loewis.)
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