Hugo van Kemenade: Fixing the ... Note

Hugo van Kemenade: Fixing the dictionary with Python 3.14

The text discusses the process of working on CPython and encountering obscure bugs in various compilers, operating systems, and other areas. The author mentions several examples of these bugs, including issues with Rust, LLVM, clang, GCC, glibc, readline, and curses. The Python release notes have a section called "And now for something completely different" which includes interesting facts and trivia. For Python 3.14, the author is focusing on the theme of pi, pie, and magpie. As part of this research, the author looked up the word pi in the Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary's first citation for pi was from William Jones' book Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos, published in 1706. However, the author found a markup bug in the OED's first citation for pi. The author reported the bug to the OED in July 2024 and it was fixed by June 2025. The text also includes a mention of the OED's history, referencing its 1901 forerunner, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. The author expresses satisfaction that the bug was fixed, saying "Hooray" to celebrate the resolution of the issue.
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