Cython 0.12

Release date: November 23 2009

New features

Type inference with the infer_types directive
Seamless C++ complex support
Fast extension type instantiation using the normal Python meme obj = MyType.__new__(MyType)
Improved support for Py3.1
Cython now runs under Python 3.x using the 2to3 tool
unittest support for doctests in Cython modules
Optimised handling of C strings (char*): for c in cstring[2:50] and cstring.decode()
Looping over c pointers: for i in intptr[:50].
Many other optimisation, e.g. enumerate() loops, parallel swap assignments (a,b = b,a), and unicode.encode()
More complete numpy.pxd
pyximport improvements
cython_freeze improvements
Many bug fixes

There has also been a lot of work behind the scenes to improve temp handling, streamline writing optimizations, and cleanup code in general.

This revision to introduces some backwards incompatible changes to more closely align Cython with the Python language. They are

Division involving negative C integers now follow Python semantics rather than C semantics. Division by zero also now raises a Python exception. See CEP 516 This has been optional for several releases, and is now the default. It can be disabled on a per-function or per-file basis, or from the command line (see enhancements/compilerdirectives)
Unmarked strings are now of type str in both Python 2.x (becoming byte strings) and Python 3.x (becoming unicode strings). Byte strings may be marked as b"..." and unicode strings as u"..." no matter what the runtime environment. See CEP 108
The boolean expressions x or y and x and y return either x or y just like in Python, even when x and y are c types. This means that the types must be compatible. Previously x and y were coerced into truth values first, and either 1 or 0 was returned.

Thanks also to everybody who's helping us out in our discussions on the mailing list.