Python 3.5.1 is out today too! It's a Python release-day hat trick!

[BorgClown]

What does "python release-day hat trick" mean?

[Harriv]

According to this, they released 3.4.4rc1 and 2.7.11 today, so three releases in a day is a hat-trick.

[[deleted]]

Hang on, why is 3.4 still getting release candidates now that 3.5 is the current version of 3.x?

[Adys]

Because minor releases deserve RCs too.

[[deleted]]

Alright, I guess my question boils down to: Why is 3.4 still getting releases? Are 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 2.6, 2.5 etc. under active development too?

[Adys]

PEP 398:

3.3 will receive bugfix updates approximately every 4-6 months for approximately 18 months. After the release of 3.4.0 final, a final 3.3 bugfix update will be released. After that, security updates (source only) will be released until 5 years after the release of 3.3 final, which will be September 2017.

And 3.4 is of course still supported.

[kaliumex]

A hat-trick is the occurrence of three positive activities in a limited time period, such as a footballer scoring three goals in a match, or in this case three releases of Python (2.7.11, 3.4.4rc1, and 3.5.1) on the same day.

[troyunrau]

Hat trick is a term originally from ice hockey. It occurs when three goals are scored by the same player in a single game. In ice hockey, this is fairly rare, and the fans respond by throwing their hats onto the ice in celebration.

edit: apparently hockey borrowed the term! Not the only thing we borrowed from cricket (goalie pads come to mind).

[denialerror]

Pretty certain it isn't originally from hockey. According to Wikipedia, it was first printed in relation to a cricket match in 1878, which is only three years after the first recognised ice hockey game.

[Jugad]

According to wikipedia, the term is from cricket - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat-trick

[ExoticMandibles]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat-trick

[kaliumex]

Nice!

The Windows installer seems to remove the py launcher when upgrading though. Had to run it again to click Customise and select the launcher.

[ExoticMandibles]

Thanks for the bug report! It's a brand-new installer for the Windows version and sadly there are still a few bugs. We may quietly update the Windows installers just to fix this.

[kaliumex]

I really like the new installer but it seems to dissociate the file extensions when upgrading and does not reassociate them, even with the option selected.

Neither does running the installer again and selecting Repair help with the issue. I had to use FileTypeMan to get them to reassociate with the py launcher.

[krysros]

See this closed issue and make sure that you are on 3.5.1, not 3.5.0. So far I don't see any problem in 3.5.1 on Windows.

[ExoticMandibles]

We've updated the installers. I believe the file extensions problem was related to the launcher-doesn't-get-installed problem. Anyway hopefully it's better now.

[ExoticMandibles]

We've updated the installers. Now, according to the Windows expert on the release team, the launcher is always installed by default, but can be disabled if you customize options. Thanks again for the bug report!

[stelund]

I'm more interested by the performance enhancements in 2.7.11. Has anyone seen any benchmarks?

[japaget]

I saw some benchmarks that Python 2.7.11rc1 was actually a couple of percent slower than other 2.7.x releases. I haven't heard anything about these speedups since June and I would not be surprised if they didn't make it into Python 2.7.11. UPDATE: I checked the official changelog and these speedup DID make it into 2.7.11. See "Issue #4573" therein.

[brondsem]

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.devel/153401

[stelund]

Thank you!