Monday, December 21, 2020

Python 3.8.7 is now available

Python 3.8.7 is the seventh maintenance release of Python 3.8. Go get it here:

https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-387/

Note: this is a bugfix release for the 3.8 series which was superseded by Python 3.9, currently the latest feature release series of Python 3. You can find the latest release of 3.9.x here.

Maintenance releases for the 3.8 series will continue at regular bi-monthly intervals, with 3.8.8 planned for February 2021.

macOS 11 Big Sur not fully supported

Python 3.8.7 is not yet fully supported on macOS 11 Big Sur. It will install on macOS 11 Big Sur and will run on Apple Silicon Macs using Rosetta 2 translation. However, a few features do not work correctly, most noticeably those involving searching for system libraries (vs user libraries) such as ctypes.util.find_library() and in Distutils. This limitation affects both Apple Silicon and Intel processors. We are looking into improving the situation for Python 3.8.8.

Python 3.9.1 provides full support for Big Sur and Apple Silicon Macs, including building natively on Apple Silicon Macs and support for universal2 binaries.

What’s new?

The Python 3.8 series contains many new features and optimizations over 3.7. See the “What’s New in Python 3.8” document for more information about features included in the 3.8 series.

Detailed information about all changes made in version 3.8.7 specifically can be found in its change log. Note that compared to 3.8.6 this release also contains all changes present in 3.8.7rc1.

We hope you enjoy Python 3.8!

Thanks to all of the many volunteers who help make Python Development and these releases possible! Please consider supporting our efforts by volunteering yourself or through organization contributions to the Python Software Foundation.

Your friendly release team,
Ned Deily @nad
Steve Dower @steve.dower
Łukasz Langa @ambv

Monday, December 7, 2020

Python 3.9.1 is now available, together with 3.10.0a3 and 3.8.7rc1

It’s starting to get very cold (at least on the Northern hemisphere) so we have been carefully packaging a total of three new Python releases to keep you warm these days!

Python 3.9.1

Python 3.9.1 is the first maintenance release of Python 3.9, and also the first version of Python to support macOS 11 Big Sur natively on Apple Silicon. Go get it here.

Maintenance releases for the 3.9 series will continue at regular bi-monthly intervals, with 3.9.2 planned for Monday, 2021-02-08.

Python 3.10.0a3

Python 3.10a3 is the third alpha release of Python 3.10. You can get it here:

Python 3.8.7rc1

Python 3.8.7rc1 is the release preview of the next maintenance release of Python 3.8. You can get it here.

Assuming no critical problems are found prior to 2020-12-21 , the currently scheduled release date for 3.8.7 , no code changes are planned between this release candidate and the final release. That being said, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release of 3.8.7 and as such its main purpose is testing.

And now for something completely different

In mathematics, a Borwein integral is an integral whose unusual properties were first presented by mathematicians David Borwein and Jonathan Borwein in 2001. These integrals are remarkable for exhibiting apparent patterns that eventually break down. The following is an example:

Borwein

This pattern continues up to

Borwein

At the next step the obvious pattern fails,

Borwein

Your friendly release team,

Ned Deily 
Steve Dower 
Pablo Galindo 
Łukasz Langa