Release date: March 24, 2022

This is the fourth maintenance release of Python 3.10

Python 3.10.4 is the newest major release of the Python programming language, and it contains many new features and optimizations.

This is a special release that fixes a regression introduced by BPO 46968 which caused Python to no longer build on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. There are only 10 other bugfixes on top of 3.10.3 in this release.

Major new features of the 3.10 series, compared to 3.9

Among the new major new features and changes so far:

• PEP 623 -- Deprecate and prepare for the removal of the wstr member in PyUnicodeObject.
• PEP 604 -- Allow writing union types as X | Y
• PEP 612 -- Parameter Specification Variables
• PEP 626 -- Precise line numbers for debugging and other tools.
• PEP 618 -- Add Optional Length-Checking To zip.
• bpo-12782: Parenthesized context managers are now officially allowed.
• PEP 632 -- Deprecate distutils module.
• PEP 613 -- Explicit Type Aliases
• PEP 634 -- Structural Pattern Matching: Specification
• PEP 635 -- Structural Pattern Matching: Motivation and Rationale
• PEP 636 -- Structural Pattern Matching: Tutorial
• PEP 644 -- Require OpenSSL 1.1.1 or newer
• PEP 624 -- Remove Py_UNICODE encoder APIs
• PEP 597 -- Add optional EncodingWarning

bpo-38605: from __future__ import annotations (PEP 563) used to be on this list in previous pre-releases but it has been postponed to Python 3.11 due to some compatibility concerns. You can read the Steering Council communication about it here to learn more.

More resources

• Changelog
• 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

Positronium is a system consisting of an electron and its anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an exotic atom, specifically an onium. The system is unstable: the two particles annihilate each other to predominantly produce two or three gamma-rays, depending on the relative spin states. The energy levels of the two particles are similar to that of the hydrogen atom (which is a bound state of a proton and an electron). However, because of the reduced mass, the frequencies of the spectral lines are less than half of those for the corresponding hydrogen lines.

Full Changelog