Python 3.12 is still in development. This release, 3.12.0a4 is the fourth 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 (2023-05-08) and, if necessary, may be modified or deleted up until the release candidate phase (2023-07-31). Please keep in mind that this is a preview release and its use is not recommended for production environments.

Many new features for Python 3.12 are still being planned and written. Among the new major new features and changes so far:

• Even more improved error messages. More exceptions potentially caused by typos now make suggestions to the user.
• Support for the Linux perf profiler to report Python function names in traces.
• The deprecated wstr and wstr_length members of the C implementation of unicode objects were removed, per PEP 623.
• In the unittest module, a number of long deprecated methods and classes were removed. (They had been deprecated since Python 3.1 or 3.2).
• The deprecated smtpd and distutils modules have been removed (see PEP 594 and PEP 632). The setuptools package (installed by default in virtualenvs and many other places) continues to provide the distutils module.
• A number of other old, broken and deprecated functions, classes and methods have been removed.
• (Hey, fellow core developer, if a feature you find important is missing from this list, let Thomas know.)

For more details on the changes in Python 3.12, see What’s New In Python 3.12. The next pre-release of Python 3.12 will be 3.12.0a4, currently scheduled for 2023-02-06.

• Online Documentation
• PEP 693, the 3.12 Release Schedule
• Report bugs at https://github.com/python/cpython/issues.
• Help fund Python and its community.

And now for something completely different

Two haikus apt, as Python’s development springs ever forward.

Haiku by Katsushika Hokusai.

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa.

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 organization contributions to the Python Software Foundation.

Your release team,

Thomas Wouters

Ned Deily

Steve Dower