[Python-Dev] 2.0 press release

[Andrew Kuchling]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2000 at 07:15:31PM -0500, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>> (Incidentally, did a 2.0 press release ever go out?  Is someone going
>> to write one?)
>No; and not me...

Little-known fact: Guido actually does nothing but sit in his pyjamas
(with feet!)  all day, drinking cocoa, eating Hostess Twinkies and
watching Tiny Toons, while his long-suffering co-workers implement and
debug the fantastically complex algorithms that go into Python.

Here's some rough text: Can someone with a clue about writing a good
press release give this a look?

--amk


Reston, VA, Oct 25 2000: The Python development team today announced
the release of version 2.0 of the Python programming language.
Version 2.0 adds a number of significant new features:

	* Unicode support, in the form of a new Unicode data type,
	library additions for conversion to/from various encodings,
	and support for displaying Unicode strings in Tk widgets.

	* New language features: garbage collection of cycles, list
	comprehensions, augmented assignment, string methods.

	* Distutils, a new system for making Python modules and
	extensions easily available to a wider audience with very
	little overhead for build/release/install mechanics.

	* Improved XML support, including support for the Simple API
	for XML (SAX2), a miniature Document Object Model (DOM), and
	the Expat parser.

	* Many library improvements, including HTTP/1.1 support, an
	enhanced curses module, the ability to read and write
	ZIP-format files, support for the Windows registry, and many
	more minor improvements.

	* Ports to new platforms: 64-bit Windows on the Itanium
	processor, Windows CE, and Darwin/MacOS X.
	
Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming
language.  Its high-level built in data structures, combined with
dynamic typing and dynamic binding, make it very attractive for rapid
application development, as well as for use as a scripting or glue
language to connect existing components together.  Python's simple,
easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the
cost of program maintenance, and it supports modules and packages,
encouraging program modularity and code reuse.  

Many extension modules for Python have been written to interface 
with other libraries and applications.  Some of the available modules
include:

	* Support for many relational databases (Oracle, Sybase, MySQL)
	* GUI toolkits (Tk, Windows MFC, wxWindows, KDE, GNOME)
	* Internet protocols (LDAP, WebDAV, XML-RPC, SOAP)
	* Mathematics (Numeric Python)

Python is used for many different purposes, particularly
cross-platform rapid development, Web development, and scripting of
scientific applications.  Some of the applications using Python
include:

	* Zope, the leading Open Source web application server
	* The Mailman mailing list manager
	* The Reportlab PDF document generation toolset
	* XXX suggestions?

XXX too darn many lists here?

<Insert 4 or 5 quotations from various people here.  
 Possible people: someone from Digital Creations, PythonWare,
	          Reportlabs, ActiveState/O'Reilly, TheKompany,
	          Infoseek, Red Hat, a developer from some well-known
	          free software project that uses Python>

The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are
available free of charge and are distributed under an open-source
license.  Ports have been made to all major platforms, such as
Windows, MacOS, and many Unix variants (Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc.)
New versions are developed collaboratively by a core group of over 20
developers.

About BeOpen:
  <get text for this>

About Python:

   More information about Python can be obtained from the official Python
   website, http://www.python.org. 

(XXX Do you include About sections for the companies that provide quotes?)

Press contacts:
XXX whose address?