[RELEASE] The last Python 3.10 alpha (3.10.0a7) is available - Prepare for beta freeze

[Pablo Galindo Salgado]

Brrrrr..... do you feel that? That's the chill of *beta freeze* coming
closer. Meanwhile, your friendly CPython release team doesn’t
rest even on holidays and we have prepared a shiny new release for you:
Python 3.10.0a7.

****************************************************
Dear fellow core developer:
This alpha is the last release before feature freeze (2021-05-03), so make
sure that all new features and PEPs are landed in the master branch before
we
release the first beta. Please, be specially mindfully to check the CI and
the buildbots, maybe even using the test-with-buildbots label in GitHub
before
merging so the release team don’t need to fix a bunch of reference leaks or
platform-specific problems on the first beta release.
****************************************************


*Go get the new alpha here:*
https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3100a7/


*Python 3.10.0a7*Release Date: April 5, 2021

This is an early developer preview of Python 3.10

*Major new features of the 3.10 series, compared to 3.9*

Python 3.10 is still in development. This release, 3.10.0a7 is the last of
seven planned alpha releases. Alpha releases are intended to make it easier
to test the current state of new features and bug fixes and to test the
release process. During the alpha phase, features may be added up until the
start of the beta phase (2021-05-03) and, if necessary, may be modified or
deleted up until the release candidate phase (2021-10-04). Please keep in
mind that this is a preview release and its use is not recommended for
production environments.

Many new features for Python 3.10 are still being planned and written.
Among the new major new features and changes so far:

PEP 623 – Deprecate and prepare for the removal of the wstr member in
PyUnicodeObject.
PEP 604 – Allow writing union types as X | Y
PEP 612 – Parameter Specification Variables
PEP 626 – Precise line numbers for debugging and other tools.
bpo-38605: from __future__ import annotations (PEP 563) is now the default.
PEP 618 – Add Optional Length-Checking To zip.
bpo-12782: Parenthesized context managers are now officially allowed.
PEP 632 – Deprecate distutils module.
PEP 613 – Explicit Type Aliases
PEP 634 – Structural Pattern Matching: Specification
PEP 635 – Structural Pattern Matching: Motivation and Rationale
PEP 636 – Structural Pattern Matching: Tutorial
PEP 644 – Require OpenSSL 1.1.1 or newer
PEP 624 – Remove Py_UNICODE encoder APIs
PEP 597 – Add optional EncodingWarning
(Hey, fellow core developer, if a feature you find important is missing
from this list, let Pablo know.)
The next pre-release of Python 3.10 will be 3.10.0b1 ( the first beta
release and feature freeze ), currently scheduled for Monday, 2021-05-03.

*And now for something completely different*

In physics, the twin paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity
involving identical twins, one of whom makes a journey into space in a
high-speed rocket and returns home to find that the twin who remained on
Earth has aged more. This result appears puzzling because each twin sees
the other twin as moving, and so, as a consequence of an incorrect and
naive application of time dilation and the principle of relativity, each
should paradoxically find the other to have aged less. However, this
scenario can be resolved by realising that the travelling twin is
undergoing acceleration, which makes him a non-inertial observer. In both
views, there is no symmetry between the spacetime paths of the twins.
Therefore, the twin paradox is not a paradox in the sense of a logical
contradiction.

Your friendly release team,
Pablo Galindo Salgado @pablogsal
Ned Deily @nad
Steve Dower @steve.dower