Python 3.6.0rc1

Python 3.6.0rc1 was released on 2016-12-06.

3.6.0rc1 is the first release candidate for the 3.6.0 release. Code for 3.6.0 is now frozen. Assuming no release critical problems are found prior to the 3.6.0 final release date, currently 2016-12-16, the 3.6.0 final release will be the same code base as this 3.6.0rc1. Maintenance releases for the 3.6 series will follow at regular intervals starting in the first quarter of 2017.

Notes on this release

• If you are building Python from source, beware that the OpenSSL 1.1.0c release, the most recent as of this update, is known to cause Python 3.6 test suite failures and its use should be avoided without additional patches. It is expected that the next release of the OpenSSL 1.1.0 series will fix these problems. See http://bugs.python.org/issue28689 for more information.
• Windows users: The binaries for AMD64 will also work on processors that implement the Intel 64 architecture. (Also known as the "x64" architecture, and formerly known as both "EM64T" and "x86-64".) They will not work on Intel Itanium Processors (formerly "IA-64").
• Windows users: If installing Python 3.6.0 as a non-privileged user, you may need to escalate to administrator privileges to install an update to your C runtime libraries.
• Windows users: There are now "web-based" installers for Windows platforms; the installer will download the needed software components at installation time.
• Windows Users: There are redistributable zip files containing the Windows builds, making it easy to redistribute Python as part of another software package. Please see the documentation regarding Embedded Distribution for more information.
• OS X users: There is important information about IDLE, Tkinter, and Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X here.