Release date: Oct. 5, 2020

This is an early developer preview of Python 3.10

Major new features of the 3.10 series, compared to 3.9

Python 3.10 is still in development. This releasee, 3.10.0a1 is the first of six 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 (2021-05-03) and, if necessary, may be modified or deleted up until the release candidate phase (2021-10-04). Please keep in mind that this is a preview release and its use is not recommended for production environments.

Many new features for Python 3.10 are still being planned and written. Among the new major new features and changes so far:

• PEP 623 -- Remove wstr from Unicode
• PEP 604 -- Allow writing union types as X | Y
• PEP 612 -- Parameter Specification Variables
• (Hey, fellow core developer, if a feature you find important is missing from this list, let Pablo know.)

The next pre-release of Python 3.10 will be 3.10.0a2, currently scheduled for 2020-11-02.

More resources

• Online Documentation
• PEP 619, 3.10 Release Schedule
• Report bugs at https://bugs.python.org.
• Help fund Python and its community.

And now for something completely different

The effective potential of a particle orbiting a Reissner–Nordström black hole has a repulsive term proportional to the total electromagnetic charge of the black hole that is only relevant when the particle is very close to the singularity. This shows that a particle falling into the black hole will never be able to reach the singularity because the force of gravity will start to push it away. This is due to the fact that the energy due to the electromagnetic charge in the Reissner–Nordström black hole produces repulsive gravity, which is allowed by the theory of general relativity. Black holes are strange beasts indeed.