========================
PyPy 2.6.0 - Cameo Charm
========================

We're pleased to announce PyPy 2.6.0, only two months after PyPy 2.5.1.
We are particulary happy to update `cffi`_ to version 1.1, which makes the
popular ctypes-alternative even easier to use, and to support the new vmprof_
statistical profiler.

You can download the PyPy 2.6.0 release here:

    http://pypy.org/download.html

We would like to thank our donors for the continued support of the PyPy
project, and for those who donate to our three sub-projects, as well as our
volunteers and contributors.  

Thanks also to Yury V. Zaytsev and David Wilson who recently started
running nightly builds on Windows and MacOSX buildbots.

We've shown quite a bit of progress, but we're slowly running out of funds.
Please consider donating more, or even better convince your employer to donate,
so we can finish those projects! The three sub-projects are:

* `Py3k`_ (supporting Python 3.x): We have released a Python 3.2.5 compatible version
  we call PyPy3 2.4.0, and are working toward a Python 3.3 compatible version

* `STM`_ (software transactional memory): We have released a first working version,
  and continue to try out new promising paths of achieving a fast multithreaded Python

* `NumPy`_ which requires installation of our fork of upstream numpy,
  available `on bitbucket`_

.. _`cffi`: https://cffi.readthedocs.org
.. _`Py3k`: http://pypy.org/py3donate.html
.. _`STM`: http://pypy.org/tmdonate2.html
.. _`NumPy`: http://pypy.org/numpydonate.html
.. _`on bitbucket`: https://www.bitbucket.org/pypy/numpy

We would also like to encourage new people to join the project. PyPy has many
layers and we need help with all of them: `PyPy`_ and `RPython`_ documentation
improvements, tweaking popular `modules`_ to run on pypy, or general `help`_ with making
RPython's JIT even better. Nine new people contributed since the last release,
you too could be one of them.

.. _`PyPy`: http://doc.pypy.org 
.. _`RPython`: https://rpython.readthedocs.org
.. _`modules`: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/project-ideas.html#make-more-python-modules-pypy-friendly
.. _`help`: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/project-ideas.html

What is PyPy?
=============

PyPy is a very compliant Python interpreter, almost a drop-in replacement for
CPython 2.7. It's fast (`pypy and cpython 2.7.x`_ performance comparison)
due to its integrated tracing JIT compiler.

This release supports **x86** machines on most common operating systems
(Linux 32/64, Mac OS X 64, Windows, OpenBSD_, freebsd_),
as well as newer **ARM** hardware (ARMv6 or ARMv7, with VFPv3) running Linux.

While we support 32 bit python on Windows, work on the native Windows 64
bit python is still stalling, we would welcome a volunteer 
to `handle that`_. We also welcome developers with other operating systems or
`dynamic languages`_ to see what RPython can do for them.

.. _`pypy and cpython 2.7.x`: http://speed.pypy.org
.. _OpenBSD: http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/lang/pypy
.. _freebsd: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/lang/pypy/
.. _`handle that`: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/windows.html#what-is-missing-for-a-full-64-bit-translation
.. _`dynamic languages`: http://pypyjs.org

Highlights 
===========

* Python compatibility:

  * Improve support for TLS 1.1 and 1.2

  * Windows downloads now package a pypyw.exe in addition to pypy.exe

  * Support for the PYTHONOPTIMIZE environment variable (impacting builtin's
    __debug__ property)

  * Issues reported with our previous release were resolved_ after reports from users on
    our issue tracker at https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/issues or on IRC at
    #pypy.

* New features:

  * Add preliminary support for a new lightweight statistical profiler
    `vmprof`_, which has been designed to accomodate profiling JITted code

* Numpy:

  * Support for ``object`` dtype via a garbage collector hook

  * Support for .can_cast and .min_scalar_type as well as beginning
    a refactoring of the internal casting rules 

  * Better support for subtypes, via the __array_interface__,
    __array_priority__, and __array_wrap__ methods (still a work-in-progress)

  * Better support for ndarray.flags

* Performance improvements:

  * Slight improvement in frame sizes, improving some benchmarks

  * Internal refactoring and cleanups leading to improved JIT performance

  * Improved IO performance of ``zlib`` and ``bz2`` modules

  * We continue to improve the JIT's optimizations. Our benchmark suite is now
    over 7 times faster than cpython

.. _`vmprof`: https://vmprof.readthedocs.org
.. _resolved: http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/whatsnew-2.6.0.html

Please try it out and let us know what you think. We welcome
success stories, `experiments`_,  or `benchmarks`_, we know you are using PyPy, please tell us about it!

Cheers

The PyPy Team

.. _`experiments`: https://morepypy.blogspot.com/2015/02/experiments-in-pyrlang-with-rpython.html
.. _`benchmarks`: https://mithrandi.net/blog/2015/03/axiom-benchmark-results-on-pypy-2-5-0
