Python 3.14.0 alpha 2

Core Development
1

Alpha 2? But Alpha 1 only just came out!

This is an early developer preview of Python 3.14

Major new features of the 3.14 series, compared to 3.13

Python 3.14 is still in development. This release, 3.14.0a2 is the second of seven planned alpha releases.

Alpha releases are intended to make it easier to test the current state of new features and bug fixes and to test the release process.

During the alpha phase, features may be added up until the start of the beta phase (2025-05-06) and, if necessary, may be modified or deleted up until the release candidate phase (2025-07-22). Please keep in mind that this is a preview release and its use is not recommended for production environments.

Many new features for Python 3.14 are still being planned and written. Among the new major new features and changes so far:

The next pre-release of Python 3.14 will be 3.14.0a3, currently scheduled for 2024-12-17.

More resources

And now for something completely different

Ludolph van Ceulen (1540-1610) was a fencing and mathematics teacher in Leiden, Netherlands, and spent around 25 years calculating π (or pi), using essentially the same methods Archimedes employed some seventeen hundred years earlier.

Archimedes estimated π by calculating the circumferences of polygons that fit just inside and outside of a circle, reasoning the circumference of the circle lies between these two values. Archimedes went up to polygons with 96 sides, for a value between 3.1408 and 3.1428, which is accurate to two decimal places.

Van Ceulen used a polygon with half a billion sides. He published a 20-decimal value in his 1596 book Vanden Circkel (“On the Circle”), and later expanded it to 35 decimals:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288

Van Ceulen’s 20 digits is more than enough precision for any conceivable practical purpose. For example, even if a printed circle was perfect down to the atomic scale, the thermal vibrations of the molecules of ink would make most of those digits physically meaningless. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s highest accuracy calculations, for interplanetary navigation, uses 15 decimals: 3.141592653589793.

At Van Ceulen’s request, his upper and lower bounds for π were engraved on his tombstone in Leiden. The tombstone was eventually lost but restored in 2000. In the Netherlands and Germany, π is sometimes referred to as the “Ludolphine number”, after Van Ceulen.

Enjoy the new release

Thanks to all of the many volunteers who help make Python Development and these releases possible! Please consider supporting our efforts by volunteering yourself or through organisation contributions to the Python Software Foundation.

Regards from a chilly Helsinki with snow on the way,

Your release team,
Hugo van Kemenade @hugovk
Ned Deily @nad
Steve Dower @steve.dower
Łukasz Langa @ambv

16 Likes
2

I think this is a very interesting combination. Did the epee have a piece of chalk taped to the end? I think that would have spiced up some proofs. Thanks for sharing and congrats @hugovk.