6.0.0

oct2py 6.0 is a major release with substantial new features, a large number of
bug fixes accumulated since 5.8, and a raised minimum of Python 3.11 and
octave-kernel 1.0.

Highlights include a new Oct2PySettings / configure()
API for pydantic-based configuration, a check() diagnostic utility, an
Oct2Py.run() method for executing .m scripts, inline plot display for IDEs,
an opt-in macOS RAM disk for faster I/O,
and support for Octave snap/flatpak installs.

Numerous long-standing bugs around type conversion, session safety, and platform compatibility are also
fixed.

Enhancements

• Add Oct2PySettings and configure() for pydantic-settings-based configuration #395
• Add check() diagnostic utility for verifying the Octave installation #396
• Add Oct2Py.run() to execute .m scripts in the base workspace #374
• Add workspace proxy for MATLAB-style variable access (oc.workspace.x) #375
• Add auto_show and show() for inline plot display in PyCharm/IDEs #385
• Add backend='disable' to suppress all figure rendering #390
• Add quiet parameter to eval()/feval() to suppress output capture #372
• Add expr=True support to get_pointer() #383
• Add opt-in macOS RAM disk via ramdisk_size_mb for faster MAT file I/O #398
• Fix per-call overhead in Octave 7+ by passing --no-line-editing #363
• Add snap and flatpak Octave install support via engine.tmp_dir #351 #352

Bugs Fixed

• Fix Python bool → Octave logical conversion #389
• Fix TypeError when returning old-style Octave objects (e.g. ss) #384
• Fix classdef return for classes with required-argument constructors #380
• Fix calling .m scripts (not functions) via feval #361
• Fix deep recursion crashing Octave session #365
• Fix Octave subprocess leak in ThreadPoolExecutor #364
• Fix multiprocessing.Pool fork safety #366
• Fix save_safe_struct for function handles, integer types, and top-level objects #370
• Fix SIGINT handler preservation across engine startup #381
• Fix interactive figure display and exit TypeError #379
• Fix scipy.io TypeError for char encoding issues #378
• Fix Octave startup crash when opencv-python is imported on Linux #391
• Fix system() failures on Windows by augmenting PATH with MinGW/MSYS dirs #392
• Fix logging hygiene: remove NullHandler, add Oct2PyWarning #397
• Support Octave package namespace access (e.g. signal.butter) #393

Backwards-Incompatible Changes

• Requires Python ≥ 3.11 (follows SPEC 0)
• Requires octave-kernel ≥ 1.0

Maintenance

• Switch from hatch/uv to Poetry for dependency management
• Switch documentation from Sphinx to MkDocs
• Migrate CI from jupyterlab/maintainer-tools to calysto/maintainer_tools
• Add ASV benchmark suite and CI job
• Add check() diagnostic and issue templates