- Added new datatype :class:`.oracle.DATE`, which is a subclass of
:class:`.DateTime`.  As Oracle has no "datetime" type per se,
it instead has only ``DATE``, it is appropriate here that the
``DATE`` type as present in the Oracle dialect be an instance of
:class:`.DateTime`.  This issue doesn't change anything as far as
the behavior of the type, as data conversion is handled by the
DBAPI in any case, however the improved subclass layout will help
the use cases of inspecting types for cross-database compatibility.
Also removed uppercase ``DATETIME`` from the Oracle dialect as this
type isn't functional in that context.  fixes #2987
- A major improvement made to the mechanics by which the :class:`.Engine`
recycles the connection pool when a "disconnect" condition is detected;
instead of discarding the pool and explicitly closing out connections,
the pool is retained and a "generational" timestamp is updated to
reflect the current time, thereby causing all existing connections
to be recycled when they are next checked out.   This greatly simplifies
the recycle process, removes the need for "waking up" connect attempts
waiting on the old pool and eliminates the race condition that many
immediately-discarded "pool" objects could be created during the
recycle operation. fixes #2985
- Fixed a few errant ``u''`` strings that would prevent tests from passing
in Py3.2.  Patch courtesy Arfrever Frehtes Taifersar Arahesis. fixes #2980
- restore the old behavior of the connection pool replacing itself just
within userland engine.dispose(); as some SQLA tests already failed when the replace step
was removed, due to those conns still being referenced, it's likely this will
create surprises for all those users that incorrectly use dispose()
and it's not really worth dealing with.  This doesn't affect the change
we made for ref: #2985.
there's no "assert_call_count" on mock
- An event listener can now be associated with a :class:`.Engine`,
after one or more :class:`.Connection` objects have been created
(such as by an orm :class:`.Session` or via explicit connect)
and the listener will pick up events from those connections.
Previously, performance concerns pushed the event transfer from
:class:`.Engine` to  :class:`.Connection` at init-time only, but
we've inlined a bunch of conditional checks to make this possible
without any additional function calls. fixes #2978