Start writing up some help for users who want to migrate from Cython 0.29.x to Cython 3.0.

docs/src/userguide/index.rst

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Contents:
    wrapping_CPlusPlus
    fusedtypes
    pypy
+   migrating_to_cy30
    limitations
    pyrex_differences
    memoryviews

docs/src/userguide/migrating_to_cy30.rst

+.. highlight:: cython
+
+.. _cython30:
+
+*********************************
+Migrating from Cython 0.29 to 3.0
+*********************************
+
+Cython 3.0 is a major revision of the compiler and the language
+that comes with some backwards incompatible changes.
+This document lists the important ones and explains how to deal with
+them in existing code.
+
+
+Python 3 syntax/semantics
+=========================
+
+Cython 3.0 now uses Python 3 syntax and semantics by default, which previously
+required setting the ``language_level`` `directive <compiler-directives>` to
+either ``3`` or ``3str``.
+The new default setting is now ``language_level=3str``, which means Python 3
+semantics, but unprefixed strings are ``str`` objects, i.e. unicode text strings
+under Python 3 and byte strings under Python 2.7.
+
+You can revert your code to the previous (Python 2.x) semantics by setting
+``language_level=2``.
+
+Further semantic changes due to the language level include:
+
+* ``/``-division uses the true (float) division operator, unless ``cdivision`` is enabled.
+* ``print`` is a function, not a statement.
+* Annotations (type hints) are now stored as strings.
+  (`PEP 563 <https://github.com/cython/cython/issues/2863>`_)
+* ``StopIteration`` handling in generators has been changed according to
+  `PEP 479 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0479/>`_.
+
+
+Python semantics
+================
+
+Some Python compatibility bugs were fixed, e.g.
+
+* Subscripting (``x[1]``) now tries the mapping protocol before the sequence protocol.
+  (https://github.com/cython/cython/issues/1807)
+* Exponentiation of integer literals now follows Python semantics and not C semantics.
+  (https://github.com/cython/cython/issues/2133)
+
+
+Binding functions
+=================
+
+The :ref:`binding directive <compiler-directives>` is now enabled by default.
+This makes Cython compiled Python (``def``) functions mostly compatible
+with normal (non-compiled) Python functions, regarding signature introspection,
+annotations, etc.
+
+It also makes them bind as methods in Python classes on attribute assignments,
+thus the name.
+If this is not intended, i.e. if a function is really meant to be a function
+and never a method, you can disable the binding (and all other Python function
+features) by setting ``binding=False`` or selectively adding a decorator
+``@cython.binding(False)``.
+In pure Python mode, the decorator was not available in Cython 0.29.16 yet,
+but compiled code does not suffer from this.
+
+We recommend, however, to keep the new function features and instead deal
+with the binding issue using the standard Python ``staticmethod()`` builtin.
+
+::
+
+    def func(self, b): ...
+
+    class MyClass(object):
+        binding_method = func
+
+        no_method = staticmethod(func)
+
+
+Namespace packages
+==================
+
+Cython now has support for loading pxd files also from namespace packages
+according to `PEP-420 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0420/>`_.
+This might have an impact on the import path.
+
+
+NumPy C-API
+===========
+
+Cython used to generate code that depended on the deprecated pre-NumPy-1.7 C-API.
+This is no longer the case with Cython 3.0.
+
+You can now define the macro ``NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API=NPY_1_7_API_VERSION``
+to get rid of the long-standing build warnings that the compiled C module
+uses a deprecated API.  Either per file::
+
+    # distutils: define_macros=NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API=NPY_1_7_API_VERSION
+
+or by setting it in your Extensions in ``setup.py``::
+
+    Extension(...
+        define_macros=[("NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API", "NPY_1_7_API_VERSION")]
+    )
+
+One side-effect of the different C-API usage is that your code may now
+require a call to the `NumPy C-API initialisation function
+<https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy-1.17.0/reference/c-api.array.html#importing-the-api>`_
+where it previously got away without doing so.
+
+In order to reduce the user impact here, Cython 3.0 will now call it
+automatically when it sees ``numpy`` being cimported, but the function
+not being used.
+In the (hopefully rare) cases where this gets in the way, the internal
+C-API initialisation can be disabled by faking the use of the function
+without actually calling it, e.g.
+
+::
+
+    # Explicitly disable the automatic initialisation of NumPy's C-API.
+    <void>import_array