RELEASED Python 2.3.4, release candidate 1

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Irmen de Jong wrote:
> Would it be an idea to 'announce' this on the newsgroup, a certain
> period before releasing a new Python version? 

I announce statements like this every year or so. Sometimes, this
causes a burst of help, but unfortunately, nothing sustainable.

> "There are at least N patches in need of reviews. Please review the
> patches to improve their chance of getting included in the next
> python version, due in X weeks".... to bring it to people's attention?

There are constantly more than 200 patches that need review; starting
with that when the next release approaches is often too late. IOW,
many of the pending patches won't make it in 2.4.0, and can't make it
into any 2.4.x release because of backwards compatibility issues.
Targeting them at 2.5.0 makes a tight schedule already...

Regards,
Martin