postgresql/src/interfaces/python/Announce

Announce: Release of PyGreSQL version 3.0
===============================================

PyGreSQL v3.0 has been released.
It is available at: ftp://ftp.druid.net/pub/distrib/PyGreSQL.tgz.  If
you are running NetBSD, look in the packages directory under databases.
There is also a package in the FreeBSD ports collection.              

PostgreSQL is a database system derived from Postgres4.2. It conforms
to (most of) ANSI SQL and offers many interesting capabilities (C
dynamic linking for functions or type definition, etc.). This package
is copyright by the Regents of the University of California, and is
freely distributable.

Python is an interpreted programming language. It is object oriented,
simple to use (light syntax, simple and straightforward statements), and
has many extensions for building GUIs, interfacing with WWW, etc.  An
intelligent web  browser (HotJava like) is currently under development
(November 1995), and this should open programmers many doors. Python is
copyrighted by Stichting S Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, and is freely distributable.

PyGreSQL is a python module that interfaces to a PostgreSQL database. It
embeds the PostgreSQL query library to allow easy use of the powerful
PostgreSQL features from a Python script.

This release of PyGreSQL is the first DB-SIG API.  That's why we have
a bump in the major number.  There is also a potential problem in
backwards compatibility.  Previously when there was a NULL in a returned
field it was returned as a blank.  Now it is more properly returned as
a Python None.  Any scripts that expect NULLs to be blanks will have
problems with this.

Due to the fact that the DB-API is brand new, it is expected that there
will be a 3.1 release shortly with corrections once many people have
had a chance to test it.

See the other changes below or in the Changelog file.

PyGreSQL 2.0 was developed and tested on a NetBSD 1.3_BETA system.  It
is based on the PyGres95 code written by Pascal Andre,
andre@chimay.via.ecp.fr.  I changed the version to 2.0 and updated the
code for Python 1.5 and PostgreSQL 6.2.1.  While I was at it I upgraded
the code to use full ANSI style prototypes and changed the order of
arguments to connect.  Later versions are fixes and enhancements to that.
The latest version of PyGreSQL works with Python 1.5.2 and PostgreSQL 6.5.

Important changes from PyGreSQL 2.4 to PyGreSQL 3.0:
  - Remove strlen() call from pglarge_write() and get size from object.
    (Richard@Bouska.cz)
  - Add a little more error checking to the quote function in the wrapper
  - Add extra checking in _quote function
  - Wrap query in pg.py for debugging
  - Add DB-API 2.0 support to pgmodule.c (andre@via.ecp.fr)
  - Add DB-API 2.0 wrapper pgdb.py (andre@via.ecp.fr)
  - Correct keyword clash (temp) in tutorial
  - Clean up layout of tutorial
  - Return NULL values as None (rlawrence@lastfoot.com) (WARNING: This
    will cause backwards compatibility issues.)
  - Change None to NULL in insert and update
  - Change hash-bang lines to use /usr/bin/env
  - Clearing date should be blank (NULL) not TODAY
  - Quote backslashes in strings in _quote (brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
  - Expanded and clarified build instructions (tbryan@starship.python.net)
  - Make code thread safe (Jerome.Alet@unice.fr)
  - Add README.distutils (mwa@gate.net & jeremy@cnri.reston.va.us)
  - Many fixes and increased DB-API compliance by chifungfan@yahoo.com,
    tony@printra.net, jeremy@alum.mit.edu and others to get the final
    version ready to release.

Important changes from PyGreSQL 2.3 to PyGreSQL 2.4:
  - Insert returns None if the user doesn't have select permissions
    on the table.  It can (and does) happen that one has insert but
    not select permissions on a table.
  - Added ntuples() method to query object (brit@druid.net)
  - Corrected a bug related to getresult() and the money type
  - Corrected a bug related to negative money amounts
  - Allow update based on primary key if munged oid not available and
    table has a primary key
  - Add many __doc__ strings. (andre@via.ecp.fr)
  - Get method works with views if key specified

Important changes from PyGreSQL 2.2 to PyGreSQL 2.3:
  - connect.host returns "localhost" when connected to Unix socket
    (torppa@tuhnu.cutery.fi)
  - Use PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords in connect() (torppa@tuhnu.cutery.fi)
  - fixes and cleanups (torppa@tuhnu.cutery.fi)
  - Fixed memory leak in dictresult() (terekhov@emc.com)
  - Deprecated pgext.py - functionality now in pg.py
  - More cleanups to the tutorial
  - Added fileno() method - terekhov@emc.com (Mikhail Terekhov)
  - added money type to quoting function
  - Compiles cleanly with more warnings turned on
  - Returns PostgreSQL error message on error
  - Init accepts keywords (Jarkko Torppa)
  - Convenience functions can be overridden (Jarkko Torppa)
  - added close() method

Important changes from PyGreSQL 2.1 to PyGreSQL 2.2:
  - Added user and password support thanks to Ng Pheng Siong <ngps@post1.com>
  - Insert queries return the inserted oid
  - Add new pg wrapper (C module renamed to _pg)
  - Wrapped database connection in a class.
  - Cleaned up some of the tutorial.  (More work needed.)
  - Added version and __version__.  Thanks to thilo@eevolute.com for
    the suggestion.

Important changes from PyGreSQL 2.0 to PyGreSQL 2.1:
  - return fields as proper Python objects for field type
  - Cleaned up pgext.py
  - Added dictresult method

Important changes from Pygres95 1.0b to PyGreSQL 2.0:
  - Updated code for PostgreSQL 6.2.1 and Python 1.5.
  - Reformatted code and converted to ANSI .
  - Changed name to PyGreSQL (from PyGres95.)
  - Changed order of arguments to connect function.
  - Created new type pgqueryobject and moved certain methods to it.
  - Added a print function for pgqueryobject
  - Various code changes - mostly stylistic.

For more information about each package, please have a look to their
web pages:
  - Python :     http://www.python.org/
  - PostgreSQL : http://www.PostgreSQL.org/
  - PyGreSQL :   http://www.druid.net/pygresql/


D'Arcy J.M. Cain
darcy@druid.net