0.3.0.rst

PlasmaPy v0.3.0 (2020-01-25)

Backwards Incompatible Changes

• Create simulation subpackage; move Species particle tracker there; rename to particletracker (#665)
• Changed plasmapy.classes.Species to plasmapy.simulation.ParticleTracker (#668)
• Move pytest helper functionality from plasmapy.utils to plasmapy.utils.pytest_helpers (#674)
• Move plasmapy.physics, plasmapy.mathematics and plasmapy.transport into the common plasmapy.formulary subpackage (#692)
• Change ClassicalTransport methods into attributes (#705)

Deprecations and Removals

• Remove :file:`parameters_cython.pyx`, switching to Numba for the future of computationally intensive code in PlasmaPy (#650)
• Remove plasmapy.constants, which was a thin wrapper around astropy.constants with no added value (#651)

Features

• Generalize ion_sound_speed function to work for all values of k^2 \lambda_{D}^2 (i.e. not just in the non-dispersive limit). (#700)
• Optimize add__magnetostatics for a 16x speedup in tests! (#703)

Bug Fixes

• Define preserve_signature decorator to help IDEs parse signatures of decorated functions. (#640)
• Fix Pytest deprecations of message argument to raise and warn functions. (#666)
• Fix h5py warning in OpenPMD module, opening files in read mode by default (#717)

Improved Documentation

• Added real-world examples to examples/plot_physics.py and adjusted the plots to be more human-friendly. (#721)
• Add examples images to the top of the main doc page in :file:`docs\index.rst` (#655)

• Added examples to the documentation to mass_density

  and Hall_parameter functions (#709)

• Add docstrings to decorator :func:`plasmapy.utils.decorators.converter.angular_freq_to_hz`. (#729)

Trivial/Internal Changes

• Replace decorator plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.check_quantity with decorator :func:`plasmapy.utils.decorators.validators.validate_quantities`. Permanently delete decorator plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.check_quantity and its supporting code. For functions :func:`plasmapy.formulary.quantum.chemical_potential` and plasmapy.formulary.quantum._chemical_potential_interp, add a raise NotImplementedError due to bug outlined in issue #726. Associated pytests are marked with pytest.mark.xfail and doctests are marked with doctests: +SKIP. (#722)
• Add towncrier_ automated changelog creation support (#643)
• Move existing "check" decorators to new plasmapy.utils.decorators module (#647)
• Allow running our sphinx-gallery examples as Jupyter notebooks via Binder (#656)
• Overhaul CI setup, following the example of SunPy (#657)
• Patch sphinx_gallery.binder to output custom links to Binder instance (#658)
• Remove the now unnecessary astropy_helpers submodule (#663)
• Followup PR to CI overhaul (#664)
• Add a Codemeta file (:file:`codemeta.json`) (#676)
• Overhaul and simplify CI, add Python 3.8 to tests, bump minimal required package versions, fix docs. (#712)
• Update communication channels in docs (#715)
• Code style fixes to the atomic subpackage (#716)
• Clean up main package namespace, removing plasmapy.test (#718)
• Reduce precision of tests and doctests to allow for refinements of fundamental constants. (#731)
• Create decorators for checking/validating values and units of function/method input and return arguments. Defined decorators include :func:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.check_values`, :func:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.check_units`, and :func:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.validators.validate_quantities`. These decorators are fully defined by "decorator classes" :class:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.CheckBase`, :class:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.CheckValues`, :class:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.checks.CheckUnits`, and :class:`~plasmapy.utils.decorators.validators.ValidateQuantities`. (#648)
• Create a decorator to change output of physics functions from "radians/s" to "hz" (#667)
• Added pytest.mark.slow to pytest markers. Updated documentation to notify developers of functionality. (#677)