[Python-Dev] Reminder: 3.6.0a2 snapshot 2016-06-13 12:00 UTC

[Ned Deily]

Just a quick reminder that the next alpha snapshot for the 3.6 release cycle is coming up in a couple of days.  This is the second of four alphas we have planned.  Alpha 2 follows the development sprints at the PyCon US 2016 in Portland.  Thanks to all of you who were able to be there and contribute!  And to all of you who continue to contribue from afar.  While there are still plenty of proposed patches awaiting review, nearly 300 commits have been pushed to the default branch (for 3.6.0) in the four weeks since alpha 1. 

As a reminder, alpha releases are intended to make it easier for the wider community to test the current state of new features and bug fixes for an upcoming Python release as a whole and for us to test the release process.  During the alpha phase, features may be added, modified, or deleted up until the start of the beta phase.  Alpha users beware!

Also note that Larry has announced plans to do a 3.5.2 release candidate sometime this weekend and Benjamin plans to do a 2.7.12 release candidate.  So get important maintenance release fixes in ASAP.

Looking ahead, the next alpha release, 3.6.0a3, will follow in about a month on 2016-07-11.

2016-06-13 ~12:00 UTC: code snapshot for 3.6.0 alpha 1

now to 2016-09-07: Alpha phase (unrestricted feature development)

2016-09-07: 3.6.0 feature code freeze, 3.7.0 feature development begins

2016-09-07 to 2016-12-04: 3.6.0 beta phase (bug and regression fixes, no new features)

2016-12-04 3.6.0 release candidate 1 (3.6.0 code freeze)

2016-12-16 3.6.0 release (3.6.0rc1 plus, if necessary, any dire emergency fixes)

--Ned

P.S. Just to be clear, this upcoming alpha snapshot will *not* contain a resolution for 3.6.0 of the current on-going discussions about the behavior of os.urandom(), the secrets module, and friends (Issue26839, Issue27288, et al).  I think the focus should be on getting 3.5.2 settled and then we can decide on and implement any changes for 3.6.0 in an upcoming alpha prior to beta 1.

https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0494/

--
  Ned Deily
  nad at python.org -- []