[RELEASE] The last Python 3.11 alpha (3.11.0a7) 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 and we have prepared a shiny new release for you: Python 3.11.0a7.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Dear fellow core developer:
This alpha is the last release before feature freeze (Friday, 2022-05-06),
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-3110a7/

**This is an early developer preview of Python 3.11**

# Major new features of the 3.11 series, compared to 3.10

Python 3.11 is still in development.  This release, 3.11.0a7 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 (2022-05-06) and, if necessary, may be modified or deleted up
until the release candidate phase (2022-08-01).  Please keep in mind that
this is a preview release and its use is **not** recommended for production
environments.

Many new features for Python 3.11 are still being planned and written.
Among the new major new features and changes so far:

* [PEP 657](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0657/) -- Include
Fine-Grained Error Locations in Tracebacks
* [PEP 654](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0654/) -- Exception Groups
and except*
* [PEP 673](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0673/)  -- Self Type
* [PEP 646](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0646/)-- Variadic Generics
* [PEP 680](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0680/)-- tomllib: Support
for Parsing TOML in the Standard Library
* [PEP 675](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0675/)-- Arbitrary Literal
String Type
* [PEP 655](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0655/)-- Marking individual
TypedDict items as required or potentially-missing
* [bpo-46752](https://bugs.python.org/issue46752)-- Introduce task groups
to asyncio
* The [Faster Cpython Project](https://github.com/faster-cpython) is
already yielding some exciting results: this version of CPython 3.11 is
~12% faster on the geometric mean of the [PyPerformance benchmarks](
speed.python.org), compared to 3.10.0.
 * Hey, **fellow core developer,** if a feature you find important is
missing from this list, let me know.

The next pre-release of Python 3.11 will be 3.11.0b1, currently scheduled
for Friday, 2022-05-06.

# More resources

* [Online Documentation](https://docs.python.org/3.11/)
* [PEP 664](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0664/), 3.11 Release
Schedule
* Report bugs at [https://bugs.python.org](https://bugs.python.org).
* [Help fund Python and its community](/psf/donations/).

# And now for something completely different

In mathematics, the Dirac delta distribution (δ distribution) is a
generalized function or distribution over the real numbers, whose value is
zero everywhere except at zero, and whose integral over the entire real
line is equal to one. The current understanding of the impulse is as a
linear functional that maps every continuous function to its value at zero.
The delta function was introduced by physicist Paul Dirac as a tool for the
normalization of state vectors. It also has uses in probability theory and
signal processing. Its validity was disputed until Laurent Schwartz
developed the theory of distributions where it is defined as a linear form
acting on functions. Defining this distribution as a "function" as many
physicist do is known to be one of the easier ways to annoy mathematicians
:)

# We hope you enjoy those new releases!

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,
Pablo Galindo @pablogsal
Ned Deily @nad
Steve Dower @steve.dower