[Python-Dev] [RELEASED] Python 3.4.0a4

On behalf of the Python development team, I'm very pleased to announce the fourth and final alpha release of Python 3.4. This is a preview release, and its use is not recommended for production settings. Python 3.4 includes a range of improvements of the 3.x series, including hundreds of small improvements and bug fixes. Major new features and changes in the 3.4 release series so far include: * PEP 435, a standardized "enum" module * PEP 436, a build enhancement that will help generate introspection information for builtins * PEP 442, improved semantics for object finalization * PEP 443, adding single-dispatch generic functions to the standard library * PEP 445, a new C API for implementing custom memory allocators * PEP 446, changing file descriptors to not be inherited by default in subprocesses * PEP 450, the new "statistics" module * PEP 3156, the new "asyncio" module, a new framework for asynchronous I/O To download Python 3.4.0a4 visit: http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.4.0/ Python 3.4.0a4 has several known issues: * The Python compiler has a small memory leak. * The "asyncio" module test suite fails on some platforms. * I/O conducted by the "asyncio" module may, rarely, erroneously time out. The timeout takes one hour. Please consider trying Python 3.4.0a4 with your code and reporting any new issues you notice to: http://bugs.python.org/ Enjoy! -- Larry Hastings, Release Manager larry at hastings.org (on behalf of the entire python-dev team and 3.4's contributors)