@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 -   Alexandre Catarino([@AlexCatarino](https://github.com/AlexCatarino))
 -   Andrey Sant'Anna ([@andreydani](https://github.com/andreydani))
 -   Arvid JB ([@ArvidJB](https://github.com/ArvidJB))
+-   Avinash Maddikonda ([@SFM61319](https://github.com/SFM61319))
 -   Benoît Hudson ([@benoithudson](https://github.com/benoithudson))
 -   Bradley Friedman ([@leith-bartrich](https://github.com/leith-bartrich))
 -   Callum Noble ([@callumnoble](https://github.com/callumnoble))
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@
 -   ([@OneBlue](https://github.com/OneBlue))
 -   ([@rico-chet](https://github.com/rico-chet))
 -   ([@rmadsen-ks](https://github.com/rmadsen-ks))
+-   ([@SnGmng](https://github.com/SnGmng))
 -   ([@stonebig](https://github.com/stonebig))
 -   ([@testrunner123](https://github.com/testrunner123))
 -   ([@DanBarzilian](https://github.com/DanBarzilian))
-
 
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ This document follows the conventions laid out in [Keep a CHANGELOG][].
 
 ### Changed
 -   Drop support for Python 2
+-   `clr.AddReference` may now throw errors besides `FileNotFoundException`, that provide more
+details about the cause of the failure
+-   `clr.AddReference` no longer adds ".dll" implicitly
 
 ### Fixed
 
@@ -35,6 +38,7 @@ This version improves performance on benchmarks significantly compared to 2.3.
 -   Support for Python 3.8
 -   Codecs as the designated way to handle automatic conversions between
     .NET and Python types
+-   Added Python 3 buffer api support and PyBuffer interface for fast byte and numpy array read/write ([#980][p980])
 
 ### Changed
 
 
@@ -14,12 +14,17 @@ provides a powerful application scripting tool for .NET developers. It
 allows Python code to interact with the CLR, and may also be used to
 embed Python into a .NET application.
 
+.. note::
+   The master branch of this repository tracks the ongoing development of version 3.0.
+   Backports of patches to 2.5 are tracked in the
+   `backports-2.5 branch <https://github.com/pythonnet/pythonnet/tree/backports-2.5>`_.
+
 Calling .NET code from Python
 -----------------------------
 
 Python.NET allows CLR namespaces to be treated essentially as Python packages.
 
-.. code-block::
+.. code-block:: python
 
    import clr
    from System import String
@@ -28,7 +33,7 @@ Python.NET allows CLR namespaces to be treated essentially as Python packages.
 To load an assembly, use the ``AddReference`` function in the ``clr``
 module:
 
-.. code-block::
+.. code-block:: python
 
    import clr
    clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")
@@ -80,7 +85,7 @@ Example
 
 Output:
 
-.. code::
+.. code:: csharp
 
    1.0
    -0.958924274663
 
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ init:
 install:
   - python -m pip install -U pip
   - pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt --quiet
+  - pip install pycparser --quiet
 
   # Install OpenCover. Can't put on `packages.config`, not Mono compatible
   - .\tools\nuget\nuget.exe install OpenCover -OutputDirectory packages -Verbosity quiet
@@ -53,7 +54,7 @@ build_script:
   - coverage run setup.py bdist_wheel %BUILD_OPTS%
 
 test_script:
-  - pip install --find-links=.\dist\ pythonnet
+  - pip install --no-index --find-links=.\dist\ pythonnet
   - ps: .\ci\appveyor_run_tests.ps1
 
 on_finish:
 
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@
     <Compile Include="TestFinalizer.cs" />
     <Compile Include="TestInstanceWrapping.cs" />
     <Compile Include="TestPyAnsiString.cs" />
+	<Compile Include="TestPyBuffer.cs" />
     <Compile Include="TestPyFloat.cs" />
     <Compile Include="TestPyInt.cs" />
     <Compile Include="TestPyList.cs" />
 
@@ -1,12 +1,27 @@
 using System;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Linq;
+
 using NUnit.Framework;
+
 using Python.Runtime;
 
+using PyRuntime = Python.Runtime.Runtime;
+
 namespace Python.EmbeddingTest
 {
     public class TestConverter
     {
+        static readonly Type[] _numTypes = new Type[]
+        {
+                typeof(short),
+                typeof(ushort),
+                typeof(int),
+                typeof(uint),
+                typeof(long),
+                typeof(ulong)
+        };
+
         [OneTimeSetUp]
         public void SetUp()
         {
@@ -47,6 +62,60 @@ public void TestConvertDoubleToManaged(
             Assert.IsTrue(((double) convertedValue).Equals(testValue));
         }
 
+        [Test]
+        public void CovertTypeError()
+        {
+            Type[] floatTypes = new Type[]
+            {
+                typeof(float),
+                typeof(double)
+            };
+            using (var s = new PyString("abc"))
+            {
+                foreach (var type in _numTypes.Union(floatTypes))
+                {
+                    object value;
+                    try
+                    {
+                        bool res = Converter.ToManaged(s.Handle, type, out value, true);
+                        Assert.IsFalse(res);
+                        var bo = Exceptions.ExceptionMatches(Exceptions.TypeError);
+                        Assert.IsTrue(Exceptions.ExceptionMatches(Exceptions.TypeError)
+                            || Exceptions.ExceptionMatches(Exceptions.ValueError));
+                    }
+                    finally
+                    {
+                        Exceptions.Clear();
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void ConvertOverflow()
+        {
+            using (var num = new PyLong(ulong.MaxValue))
+            {
+                IntPtr largeNum = PyRuntime.PyNumber_Add(num.Handle, num.Handle);
+                try
+                {
+                    object value;
+                    foreach (var type in _numTypes)
+                    {
+                        bool res = Converter.ToManaged(largeNum, type, out value, true);
+                        Assert.IsFalse(res);
+                        Assert.IsTrue(Exceptions.ExceptionMatches(Exceptions.OverflowError));
+                        Exceptions.Clear();
+                    }
+                }
+                finally
+                {
+                    Exceptions.Clear();
+                    PyRuntime.XDecref(largeNum);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
         [Test]
         public void RawListProxy()
         {
 
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+using System.Text;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using Python.Runtime;
+
+namespace Python.EmbeddingTest {
+    class TestPyBuffer
+    {
+        [OneTimeSetUp]
+        public void SetUp()
+        {
+            PythonEngine.Initialize();
+        }
+
+        [OneTimeTearDown]
+        public void Dispose()
+        {
+            PythonEngine.Shutdown();
+        }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void TestBufferWrite()
+        {
+            string bufferTestString = "hello world! !$%&/()=?";
+
+            using (Py.GIL())
+            {
+                using (var scope = Py.CreateScope())
+                {
+                    scope.Exec($"arr = bytearray({bufferTestString.Length})");
+                    PyObject pythonArray = scope.Get("arr");
+                    byte[] managedArray = new UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(bufferTestString);
+
+                    using (PyBuffer buf = pythonArray.GetBuffer())
+                    {
+                        buf.Write(managedArray, 0, managedArray.Length);
+                    }
+
+                    string result = scope.Eval("arr.decode('utf-8')").ToString();
+                    Assert.IsTrue(result == bufferTestString);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void TestBufferRead()
+        {
+            string bufferTestString = "hello world! !$%&/()=?";
+
+            using (Py.GIL())
+            {
+                using (var scope = Py.CreateScope())
+                {
+                    scope.Exec($"arr = b'{bufferTestString}'");
+                    PyObject pythonArray = scope.Get("arr");
+                    byte[] managedArray = new byte[bufferTestString.Length];
+
+                    using (PyBuffer buf = pythonArray.GetBuffer())
+                    {
+                        buf.Read(managedArray, 0, managedArray.Length);
+                    }
+
+                    string result = new UTF8Encoding().GetString(managedArray);
+                    Assert.IsTrue(result == bufferTestString);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ public void SetUp()
             string testPath = Path.Combine(TestContext.CurrentContext.TestDirectory, s);
 
             IntPtr str = Runtime.Runtime.PyString_FromString(testPath);
-            IntPtr path = Runtime.Runtime.PySys_GetObject("path");
-            Runtime.Runtime.PyList_Append(new BorrowedReference(path), str);
+            BorrowedReference path = Runtime.Runtime.PySys_GetObject("path");
+            Runtime.Runtime.PyList_Append(path, str);
             Runtime.Runtime.XDecref(str);
         }
 
@@ -84,5 +84,28 @@ public void TestCastGlobalVar()
             Assert.AreEqual("2", foo.FOO.ToString());
             Assert.AreEqual("2", foo.test_foo().ToString());
         }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void BadAssembly()
+        {
+            string path;
+            if (Python.Runtime.Runtime.IsWindows)
+            {
+                path = @"C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll";
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                Assert.Pass("TODO: add bad assembly location for other platforms");
+                return;
+            }
+
+            string code = $@"
+import clr
+clr.AddReference('{path}')
+";
+
+            var error = Assert.Throws<PythonException>(() => PythonEngine.Exec(code));
+            Assert.AreEqual(nameof(FileLoadException), error.PythonTypeName);
+        }
     }
 }
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ readonly ref struct BorrowedReference
         public bool IsNull => this.pointer == IntPtr.Zero;
 
         /// <summary>Gets a raw pointer to the Python object</summary>
-        public IntPtr DangerousGetAddress()
-            => this.IsNull ? throw new NullReferenceException() : this.pointer;
+        public IntPtr DangerousGetAddress() => this.pointer;
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Creates new instance of <see cref="BorrowedReference"/> from raw pointer. Unsafe.
 
@@ -27,14 +27,18 @@ public PyObject MoveToPyObject()
             this.pointer = IntPtr.Zero;
             return result;
         }
+
         /// <summary>
         /// Removes this reference to a Python object, and sets it to <c>null</c>.
         /// </summary>
         public void Dispose()
         {
-            if (!this.IsNull())
-                Runtime.XDecref(this.pointer);
-            this.pointer = IntPtr.Zero;
+            if (this.IsNull())
+            {
+                return;
+            }
+            Runtime.XDecref(pointer);
+            pointer = IntPtr.Zero;
         }
 
         /// <summary>