Reorganise README to reflect that API docs are generated by default

[dbus-python-phuang.git] / NEWS

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.82.2 (unreleased)
=========================================

Incompatibility with 0.82.1:

* If you pass the timeout argument to call_async or an asynchronous proxy
  method call and expect it to be in milliseconds, you should change the
  argument to be in seconds, and require dbus-python >= 0.82.2.

  This feature didn't work at all in versions prior to 0.82.1, so any code
  that works with 0.82.0 or earlier is unaffected.

Features:

* @dbus.service.method supports a rel_path_keyword argument for the benefit
  of fallback objects, which provides the method implementation with the path
  of the object within the exported subtree. For instance, if you have a
  fallback object exported at /Fallback, and you call a method that has
  rel_path_keyword='rel_path' on /Fallback and on /Fallback/Some/Where, the
  method implementation will be called with rel_path='/' and with
  rel_path='/Some/Where' respectively. (fd.o #11623)

Fixes:

* As mentioned under "Incompatibilities" above, Connection.call_async()
  measures timeouts in seconds, as was always intended.
  This means that calls through a proxy object with a reply_handler and
  error_handler will measure the timeout in seconds too.

* Introspect() now works on objects exported in more than one location.
  (fd.o #11794)

* Building against Python 2.4 on non-Debian-derived distributions, or a
  non-default Python version on Gentoo, should work again (revenge
  of fd.o #11282, thanks Eyal Ben David).

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.82.1 (2007-07-11)
=========================================

The "double precision" release.

Fixes:

* Parse the timeout correctly in send_message_with_reply() and
  send_message_with_reply_and_block(), fixing the use of non-default timeouts
  (bugs.fd.o #11489)
* The tutorial no longer uses interactive-Python syntax, as it confused users.
  (bugs.fd.o #11209)
* When making a call via a proxy object with ignore_reply=True, also get the
  necessary introspection data asynchronously. This can avoid deadlocks in
  some cases, such as calling methods in the same process (though this is not
  recommended, for efficiency and sanity reasons).
* dbus.lowlevel exposes enough constants to write correct filter functions.
* We don't use dbus_watch_get_fd() (deprecated in libdbus) unless our libdbus
  is too old to have the modern replacement, dbus_watch_get_unix_fd().

Deprecations:

* Omitting the bus argument in the BusName constructor is deprecated.
  The fact that it uses the globally shared connection to the session bus by
  default is uncomfortably subtle.

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.82.0 (2007-06-19)
=========================================

Features:

* dbus.service.Object can start off with no Connection or object path, and
  become exported later. If suitable class attributes are set, objects can
  even be exported on multiple connections, or with multiple object-paths,
  or both.

* dbus.service.FallbackObject implements a whole subtree of object-path space
  (fd.o #9295).

* ``@method`` accepts a parameter ``connection_keyword`` so methods can find
  out which connection to use for any follow-up actions.

* ``@signal`` has a new parameter ``rel_path_keyword`` which gets the path at
  which to emit the signal, relative to the path of the FallbackObject.
  ``path_keyword`` is now deprecated, and will raise an exception if used
  on an object with ``SUPPORTS_MULTIPLE_OBJECT_PATHS``, including any
  ``FallbackObject``.

Fixes:

* In watch_name_owner, only the desired name is watched!

* When cleaning up signal matches, errors are ignored. This avoids using up
  scarce pending-call allowance on dbus-daemon < 1.1, and emitting error
  messages if we get disconnected.

* Signal handlers which are bound to a unique name are automatically
  disconnected when the unique name goes away, reducing the likelihood that
  applications will leak signal matches.

* Some corrections were made to the tutorial (@service and @method take a
  parameter dbus_interface, not just interface; fd.o #11209).

* ${PYTHON}-config is used to get the Python include path (patch from
  Sebastien Bacher/Ubuntu, fd.o #11282).

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.81.1 (4 June 2007)
==========================================

Features:

* When an Error message on the bus is represented as a DBusException, the
  error name is copied into the exception and can be retrieved by
  get_dbus_name(). Exception handlers should use this instead of looking at
  the stringified form of the exception, unless backwards compatibility
  is needed.
* DBusException objects now get all arguments from the Error message, not
  just the first (although there will usually only be one). Use the 'args'
  attribute if you need to retrieve them.
* The Connection, BusConnection and Bus classes have a method
  list_exported_child_objects(path: str) -> list of str, which wraps
  dbus_connection_list_registered()
* You can remove objects from D-Bus before they become unreferenced, by
  using dbus.service.Object.remove_from_connection()
  (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10457)

Bug fixes:

* Don't deadlock when removing a signal match that tracks name-owner changes.
  (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=426412)
* Include child nodes in introspection using list_exported_child_objects()

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.81.0 (9 May 2007)
=========================================

The 'series of tubes' release
-----------------------------

This is a feature release with support for non-bus-daemon connections
and improved GObject integration.

Features:

* Bus has a superclass dbus.bus.BusConnection (a connection to a bus daemon,
  but without the shared-connection semantics or any deprecated API)
  for the benefit of those wanting to subclass bus daemon connections

* BusConnection has a superclass dbus.connection.Connection (a
  connection without a bus daemon) for use in peer-to-peer situations,
  or distributed pseudo-bus situations without a bus daemon such as
  Telepathy's Tubes API

* dbus.gobject_service.ExportedGObject is like dbus.service.Object, but
  is also a subclass of GObject (with the necessary metaclass magic to
  make this work). Until someone has verified that the GObject side of
  things works as expected too, I consider this API to be potentially
  subject to change!

* Connection and BusConnection have gained a number of useful methods,
  including watch_name_owner (track name owner changes asynchronously,
  avoiding race conditions), call_blocking and call_async (blocking and
  asynchronous method calls without going via a proxy - note that these
  are semi-low-level interfaces which don't do introspection), and
  list_names, list_activatable_names and get_name_owner which are
  simple wrappers for the corresponding org.freedesktop.DBus methods

* dbus.Interface (now also available at dbus.proxies.Interface)
  and dbus.proxies.ProxyObject now have some reasonably obvious properties.

Deprecations:

* All keyword arguments called named_service are deprecated in favour of an
  argument called bus_name (to be compatible with both older and newer
  dbus-python, you should pass these positional arguments).

* The bus keyword argument to dbus.proxies.ProxyObject is deprecated in
  favour of an argument called conn, because proxies will work on non-bus
  connections now (again, for maximum compatibility you should use a
  positional argument for this).

* No warning is raised for this, but I consider calling any remote method
  on a ProxyObject or Interface whose name is either alllowercase or
  lower_case_with_underscores to be deprecated, and reserve the right
  to add properties or methods of this form in future releases - use
  ProxyObject.get_dbus_method if you must call a remote method named in
  this way. Methods named following TheUsualDBusConvention or
  theJavaConvention are safe.

Bugfixes:

* Exceptions in signal handlers print a stack trace to stderr (this can
  be redirected elsewhere with Python's logging framework). Partially
  addresses fd.o #9980.

* The reserved local interface and object path are properly checked for.

* When you return a tuple that is not a Struct from a method with no
  out_signature, it's interpreted as multiple return values, not a
  single Struct (closes fd.o #10174).

* If send_with_reply() returns TRUE but with pending call NULL, dbus-python
  no longer crashes. This can happen when unexpectedly disconnected.

* Arguments are not examined for functions declared METH_NOARGS (this is
  unnecessary and can cause a crash).

Other notable changes:

* dbus-python uses the standard Python logging framework throughout.
  The first time a WARNING or ERROR is generated, it will configure the
  logging framework to output to stderr, unless you have already
  configured logging in your application.

* The tutorial now advocates the use of add_signal_receiver if all you
  want to do is listen for signals: this avoids undesired activation,
  e.g. of Listen or Rhythmbox (!). Addresses fd.o #10743, fd.o #10568.

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.80.2 (13 February 2007)
===============================================
- Fix numerous memory and reference leaks
- Only use -Werror if the user specifically asks for it
- Audit tp_dealloc callbacks to make sure they correctly preserve the
  exception state
- Relicense files solely owned by Collabora Ltd. more permissively (LGPL/AFL
  rather than GPL/AFL) - this includes the tutorial and all the C code

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.80.1 (24 January 2007)
==============================================
- The "oops" release
- Install dbus/_version.py, so dbus.__version__ exists again

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.80.0 (24 January 2007)
==============================================
- The "everything changes" release
- Rewrite dbus_bindings (Pyrex) as _dbus_bindings (C) - API changes!
- Define what's public API
- Move low-level but still public API to dbus.lowlevel
- Remove Variant class, add variant_level property on all D-Bus types
- Make signal matching keep working as expected when name ownership changes
- Use unambiguous D-Bus types when transferring from D-Bus to Python
- Follow well-defined rules when transferring from Python to D-Bus
- Add utf8_strings and byte_arrays options in various places, so a user
  can tweak the calling conventions to be more efficient
- Raise RuntimeError if user tries to use a connection with no main loop
  to do something that won't work without one
- Make asynchronous method calls actually asynchronous when made before
  introspection results come back
- Redo main loop machinery so we can add pure-Python main loops later without
  API breakage
- Allow construction of a dbus.service.Object if you don't have a BusName
  (or even a Bus)
- Port introspection XML parser from libxml2 (external package) to expat
  (included with Python)
- Port build system from distutils to autoconf/automake/libtool
- Install a header file for third-party main loop integration
- Make compatible with Python 2.5, including on 64-bit platforms
- Add docstrings throughout
- Add more tests and examples
- Add interoperability tests (which interoperate with Java)
- Add copyright notices!

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.71 (24 July 2006)
==============================================================
- Binary modules are now installed in the correct directory
- Distutils exports the dbus and dbus-glib cflags

D-Bus Python Bindings 0.70 (17 July 2006)
==============================================================
- First release of bindings split
- Move to a distutils build enviornment
- It is possible to now specify sender_keyword="foo", path_keyword="bar" when 
  adding a signal listener