RELEASED Python 2.4.3, final.

Anthony Baxter

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Mar 29, 2006, 5:10:33 PM3/29/06

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On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community,
I'm happy to announce the release of Python 2.4.3 (final).

Python 2.4.3 is a bug-fix release. See the release notes at the
website (also available as Misc/NEWS in the source distribution)
for details of the more than 50 bugs squished in this release,
including a number found by the Coverity Scan project.

Assuming no major bugs pop up, the next release of Python will
be Python 2.5 (alpha 1), with a final 2.4.4 release of Python
shortly after the final version of Python 2.5. The release plan
for Python 2.5 is documented in PEP-0356.

For more information on Python 2.4.3, including download links for
various platforms, release notes, and known issues, please see:

http://www.python.org/2.4.3/

Highlights of this new release include:

- Bug fixes. According to the release notes, at least 50
have been fixed.

- A small number of bugs, regressions and reference leaks
have been fixed since Python 2.4.3 release candidate 1.
See NEWS.txt for more.

Highlights of the previous major Python release (2.4) are
available from the Python 2.4 page, at

http://www.python.org/2.4/highlights.html

Enjoy this new release,
Anthony

Anthony Baxter
ant...@python.org
Python Release Manager
(on behalf of the entire python-dev team)

John Salerno

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Mar 30, 2006, 10:22:58 AM3/30/06

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Anthony Baxter wrote:

> On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community,
> I'm happy to announce the release of Python 2.4.3 (final).

Thanks!

> Assuming no major bugs pop up, the next release of Python will
> be Python 2.5 (alpha 1), with a final 2.4.4 release of Python
> shortly after the final version of Python 2.5.

Why would 2.4.4 come out after the final release of 2.5?

Gerhard Häring

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Mar 30, 2006, 10:30:29 AM3/30/06

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Because upgrading to a higher Python micro release is always
backwards-compatible. Even with existing third-party extension modules
that you have installed.

Going from 2.4.x to 2.5.x normally means you have to recompile all your
extension modules written in C. Or download and install them, if they
have binaries for your platform.

-- Gerhard

Fredrik Lundh

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Mar 30, 2006, 10:38:22 AM3/30/06

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John Salerno wrote:

> > Assuming no major bugs pop up, the next release of Python will
> > be Python 2.5 (alpha 1), with a final 2.4.4 release of Python
> > shortly after the final version of Python 2.5.
>
> Why would 2.4.4 come out after the final release of 2.5?

the 2.X.Y releases are bugfix releases, which mainly contain things discovered
and fixed during development of 2.(X+1). releasing the last 2.X.Y maintenance
release *after* releasing 2.(X+1) final is a good way to make sure that nothing
got left out.

</F>

John Salerno

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Mar 30, 2006, 10:48:19 AM3/30/06

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Thanks guys!

Terry Reedy

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Mar 30, 2006, 6:55:40 PM3/30/06

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"John Salerno" <john...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:mJSWf.1860$No6....@news.tufts.edu...

> Why would 2.4.4 come out after the final release of 2.5?

Code patches are generally applied first to the development branch. Those
that merely fix bugs usually get backported to the maintenance branch.*

Releasing 2.4.4 after 2.5 has two purposes. One, as Fredrik said, is to
catch up on the backlog of backports, which may grow in the final rush to
get the new version out. It also gives additional time to test all the
bugfixes in wider usage than the test suite.

Terry Jan Reedy