Episode 269: Python 3.14: Exploring the New Features

The Real Python Podcast

Python 3.14 is here! Christopher Trudeau returns to discuss the new version with Real Python team member Bartosz Zaczyński. This year, Bartosz coordinated the series of preview articles with members of the Real Python team and wrote the showcase tutorial, “Python 3.14: Cool New Features for You to Try.” Christopher’s video course, “What’s New in Python 3.14”, covers the topics from the article and shows the new features in action.

Christopher and Bartosz dug into the new release to create code examples showcasing the new features for the tutorial and course. We look at the enhanced and more colorful REPL experience, better error messages, safer hooks for live debugging, and deferred annotation evaluation. We also discuss template strings, Zstandard compression, and multiple performance improvements.

We share our thoughts on the updates and offer advice about incorporating them into your projects. We also discuss when you should start running Python 3.14.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:03 – Cool New Features for You to Try - Tutorial
• 00:02:20 – What’s New in Python 3.14 - Video Course
• 00:02:54 – Even Friendlier Python REPL
• 00:05:05 – Allow “json” instead of “json.tool”
• 00:05:49 – Zstandard compression
• 00:06:37 – Working With Numbers
• 00:11:09 – Deferred Evaluation of Annotations
• 00:17:35 – More Helpful Error Messages
• 00:20:41 – Warnings in try…finally Blocks
• 00:22:08 – Safer Live Process Debugging
• 00:25:22 – Pathlib Improvements
• 00:26:50 – Additional assert methods for unittest
• 00:27:19 – Template Strings (T-strings)
• 00:31:01 – Free-threaded Build Updates
• 00:35:30 – Incremental Garbage Collector
• 00:37:59 – functools partial & placeholder improvement
• 00:40:13 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:41:12 – Experimental JIT Builds
• 00:46:52 – Parallel Subinterpreters
• 00:48:59 – Unicode Database Update
• 00:49:47 – 𝜋thon - Easter Egg
• 00:51:26 – Starting to use the new version
• 00:55:26 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

• Python 3.14: Cool New Features for You to Try – Real Python
• What’s New in Python 3.14
• Python 3.14 Preview: REPL Autocompletion and Highlighting – Real Python
• Python 3.13 Preview: A Modern REPL – Real Python
• Allow “-m json” instead of “-m json.tool” · Issue #122873
• compression.zstd — Compression compatible with the Zstandard format — Python 3.14.0 documentation
• Python 3.14 Preview: Lazy Annotations – Real Python
• Python 3.14 Preview: Better Syntax Error Messages – Real Python
• PEP 765: Control flow in finally blocks — Python 3.14.0 documentation
• Remote debugging attachment protocol — Python 3.14.0 documentation
• Python 3.14 Preview: Template Strings (T-Strings)
• functools.partial placeholders · Issue #119127
• garbage_collector Internal Docs at 3.14
• Python 3.13: Free Threading and a JIT Compiler
• Multiple interpreters in the standard library — Python 3.14.0 documentation

Additional Links:

• PEP 784: Zstandard support in the standard library - Python 3.14.0 documentation
• Episode #262: Travis Oliphant: SciPy, NumPy, and Fostering Scientific Python
• Simplify Complex Numbers With Python – Real Python
• Using Python’s pathlib Module – Real Python
• Exploring Python T-Strings – Video Course
• Python 3.13 Preview: Free Threading and a JIT Compiler – Real Python
• Compatibility Status Tracking - Python Free-Threading Guide
• PyPy
• functools Module (Video) – Real Python
• Python 3.12 Preview: Subinterpreters – Real Python