Use python -X to revert back to string exceptions. See Standard Exception Classes for more info. There is a new regression test harness, which tests many more modules. In most situations, the interpreter can be installed at an arbitrary location without having to recompile. This makes life much easier for applications that embed Python.
Packages can now contain shared library modules.
New module 'fileinput' to iterate over the lines of a list of files. New module 'locale' for localized number formatting and string case sensitivity. New module 'xmllib' to parse XML files. Fixed address list parsing in module 'rfc822'. New Python mode for Emacs.