Fixing the dictionary with Python 3.14
Yes, but not the
dict kind of
dictionary.
When working on CPython, we often find obscure bugs elsewhere, in compilers, operating systems and elsewhere:
Since Python 3.8, the release notes have a section called “And now for something completely different”. These have included Monty Python sketches, astrophysics facts and poetry.
For Python 3.14, I’m doing all things π, pie and [mag]pie (more here). As part of the research for this important task, I looked up pi in the Oxford English Dictionary.
As we all recall from the Python 3.14.0b1 release notes, William Jones was the first person to use the π symbol to denote the circle’s circumference to its diameter in his Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos (1706):
However, the OED’s first citation had a markup bug:
I duly reported this to the OED in July 2024; and by the next time I looked it up, in June 2025, it was fixed!
Hooray!
Header photo: Part of the definition for “get” in the OED’s 1901 forerunner, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Hugo van Kemenade).