8/16/2020 What’s New In Python 3.10 — Python 3.10.

0a0 documentation

What’s New In Python 3.10

Release: 3.10.0a0
Date: August 16, 2020

This article explains the new features in Python 3.10, compared to 3.9.

For full details, see the changelog.

Note: Prerelease users should be aware that this document is currently in draft form. It will
be updated substantially as Python 3.10 moves towards release, so it’s worth checking
back even after reading earlier versions.

Summary – Release highlights

New Features
The int type has a new method int.bit_count() , returning the number of ones in the
binary expansion of a given integer, also known as the population count. (Contributed by
Niklas Fiekas in bpo-29882.)
The views returned by dict.keys() , dict.values() and dict.items() now all have a
mapping attribute that gives a types.MappingProxyType object wrapping the original
dictionary. (Contributed by Dennis Sweeney in bpo-40890.)
PEP 618: The zip() function now has an optional strict flag, used to require that all
the iterables have an equal length.

Other Language Changes

Builtin and extension functions that take integer arguments no longer accept Decimal s,
Fraction s and other objects that can be converted to integers only with a loss (e.g. that
have the __int__() method but do not have the __index__() method). (Contributed by
Serhiy Storchaka in bpo-37999.)

New Modules
None yet.

Improved Modules
base64
Add base64.b32hexencode() and base64.b32hexdecode() to support the Base32 Encoding
with Extended Hex Alphabet.

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curses
The extended color functions added in ncurses 6.1 will be used transparently by
curses.color_content() , curses.init_color() , curses.init_pair() , and
curses.pair_content() . A new function, curses.has_extended_color_support() ,
indicates whether extended color support is provided by the underlying ncurses library.
(Contributed by Jeffrey Kintscher and Hans Petter Jansson in bpo-36982.)

glob

Added the root_dir and dir_fd parameters in glob() and iglob() which allow to specify the
root directory for searching. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in bpo-38144.)

os
Added os.cpu_count() support for VxWorks RTOS. (Contributed by Peixing Xin in bpo-
41440.)

py_compile

Added --quiet option to command-line interface of py_compile . (Contributed by Gregory

Schevchenko in bpo-38731.)

sys

Add sys.orig_argv attribute: the list of the original command line arguments passed to the
Python executable. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-23427.)

xml

Add a LexicalHandler class to the xml.sax.handler module. (Contributed by Jonathan

Gossage and Zackery Spytz in bpo-35018.)

Optimizations
Constructors str() , bytes() and bytearray() are now faster (around 30–40% for
small objects). (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in bpo-41334.)
The runpy module now imports fewer modules. The python3 -m module-name
command startup time is 1.3x faster in average. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-
41006.)

Deprecated
Removed
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The ParserBase.error() method from the private and undocumented _markupbase

module has been removed. html.parser.HTMLParser is the only subclass of
ParserBase and its error() implementation has already been removed in Python 3.5.
(Contributed by Berker Peksag in bpo-31844.)

Porting to Python 3.10

This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes that may require changes
to your code.

Build Changes
The C99 functions snprintf() and vsnprintf() are now required to build Python.
(Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-36020.)

C API Changes
New Features
The result of PyNumber_Index() now always has exact type int . Previously, the result
could have been an instance of a subclass of int . (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in
bpo-40792.)
Add a new orig_argv member to the PyConfig structure: the list of the original
command line arguments passed to the Python executable. (Contributed by Victor
Stinner in bpo-23427.)

Porting to Python 3.10

The PY_SSIZE_T_CLEAN macro must now be defined to use PyArg_ParseTuple() and

Py_BuildValue() formats which use # : es# , et# , s# , u# , y# , z# , U# and Z# . See
Parsing arguments and building values and the PEP 353. (Contributed by Victor Stinner
in bpo-40943.)
Since Py_TYPE() is changed to the inline static function, Py_TYPE(obj) = new_type
must be replaced with Py_SET_TYPE(obj, new_type) : see Py_SET_TYPE() (available
since Python 3.9). For backward compatibility, this macro can be used:

#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x030900A4

# define Py_SET_TYPE(obj, type) ((Py_TYPE(obj) = (type)), (void)0)
#endif

(Contributed by Dong-hee Na in bpo-39573.)

Since Py_REFCNT() is changed to the inline static function, Py_REFCNT(obj) =
new_refcnt must be replaced with Py_SET_REFCNT(obj, new_refcnt) : see
Py_SET_REFCNT() (available since Python 3.9). For backward compatibility, this macro
can be used:

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#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x030900A4

# define Py_SET_REFCNT(obj, refcnt) ((Py_REFCNT(obj) = (refcnt)), (void)
#endif

(Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-39573.)

Since Py_SIZE() is changed to the inline static function, Py_SIZE(obj) = new_size
must be replaced with Py_SET_SIZE(obj, new_size) : see Py_SET_SIZE() (available
since Python 3.9). For backward compatibility, this macro can be used:

#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x030900A4

# define Py_SET_SIZE(obj, size) ((Py_SIZE(obj) = (size)), (void)0)
#endif

(Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-39573.)

Calling PyDict_GetItem() without GIL held had been allowed for historical reason. It is
no longer allowed. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-40839.)
PyUnicode_FromUnicode(NULL, size) and PyUnicode_FromStringAndSize(NULL,
size) raise DeprecationWarning now. Use PyUnicode_New() to allocate Unicode
object without initial data. (Contributed by Inada Naoki in bpo-36346.)

Removed
PyObject_AsCharBuffer() , PyObject_AsReadBuffer() ,
PyObject_CheckReadBuffer() , and PyObject_AsWriteBuffer() are removed. Please
migrate to new buffer protocol; PyObject_GetBuffer() and PyBuffer_Release() .
(Contributed by Inada Naoki in bpo-41103.)
Removed Py_UNICODE_str* functions manipulating Py_UNICODE* strings. (Contributed
by Inada Naoki in bpo-41123.)

Py_UNICODE_strlen : use PyUnicode_GetLength() or

PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH
Py_UNICODE_strcat : use PyUnicode_CopyCharacters() or
PyUnicode_FromFormat()
Py_UNICODE_strcpy , Py_UNICODE_strncpy : use
PyUnicode_CopyCharacters() or PyUnicode_Substring()
Py_UNICODE_strcmp : use PyUnicode_Compare()
Py_UNICODE_strncmp : use PyUnicode_Tailmatch()
Py_UNICODE_strchr , Py_UNICODE_strrchr : use
PyUnicode_FindChar()

Removed PyUnicode_GetMax() . Please migrate to new (PEP 393) APIs. (Contributed

by Inada Naoki in bpo-41103.)
Removed PyLong_FromUnicode() . Please migrate to PyLong_FromUnicodeObject() .
(Contributed by Inada Naoki in bpo-41103.)
Removed PyUnicode_AsUnicodeCopy() . Please use PyUnicode_AsUCS4Copy() or
PyUnicode_AsWideCharString() (Contributed by Inada Naoki in bpo-41103.)

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