Appendix G: Historical Release Notes

1.0b2

2026-06-07

Release 1.0b2 is a continuation of the Open Beta phase, accumulating fixes and refinements from community feedback.

Key Changes

  • Metadata Sync: Bumped project version to 1.0b2 and synchronized version counters across all documentation and project headers.

  • Installation Instructions: Updated installation documentation (INSTALL.md and doc/user/installation.md) to explicitly guide users to use the --pre flag for pip installations during pre-release phases (Issue #30).

  • Maintenance Guide: Formalized the “Technical Rationale” for the Defense in Depth strategy in doc/maintenance_guide.md, detailing the local/remote distinction for Git hooks and credential security.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 1.0b2

  • Tag: release_1_0b2

  • Distribution: PyPI / GitHub

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Project-wide Coverage, 0 Ruff errors, 0 Sphinx warnings.

This document tracks the internal evolution of the PyEQSP maintenance ecosystem, including changes to CI/CD pipelines, release scripts, and historical quality metrics. For user-facing feature changes, see the CHANGELOG.md.

1.0b1

2026-04-21

Release 1.0b1 (the “Open Beta Engagement” release) establishes the community infrastructure for soliciting and managing tester feedback.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Feedback Hub: Integrated a sidebar CTA and global version warning banner into the Read the Docs documentation.

  • Beta Feedback Channel: Added a specialized GitHub Issue template for verification reports and success stories.

  • Maintenance Guide Hardening: Restructured the Maintenance Guide (Volume 2) to prioritize project governance and establish a professional sequence for quality gates and release lifecycle.

  • Governance: Adopted the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct and updated technical contribution guidelines.

  • Issue Routing: Clearly partitioned detailed bug reports (using the Bug Report template) from general beta testing observations (using the Beta Feedback template).

  • Metadata Sync: Shifted project status to Development Status :: 4 - Beta and synchronized version counters (1.0b1) across all documentation and project headers.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 1.0b1

  • Tag: release_1_0b1

  • Distribution: PyPI / GitHub

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Project-wide Coverage, 0 Ruff errors, 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.9

2026-04-09

Release 0.99.9 achieves 100% project-wide coverage across both the core library and the entire maintenance ecosystem. It finalizes the dimensional robustness and equatorial symmetry features for the stable 1.0 release.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Equatorial Symmetry: Expanded the even_collars parameter across the core API (eq_regions, eq_point_set, eq_find_s2_region, etc.) to ensure partitions align perfectly with the equatorial hyperplane.

  • Symmetric Benchmark Suite: Added a full suite of even-collar benchmark runners (run_benchmarks_even.py) with 1-2-5 logarithmic scaling to verify performance parity.

  • Robustness Testing: Extended formalized testing to higher dimensions (\(S^4\) and \(S^5\)), verifying the recursive algorithm’s mathematical stability for \(dim \ge 4\).

  • Histogram Logic Alignment: Back-ported “Index Rotation” (longitude lookup fix) into eqsp/histograms.py and implemented high-\(N\) wrap-around tests. Removed legacy lookup_table() in favor of domain-translated np.searchsorted() for 100% coverage.

  • Verification Hardening: Implemented robust venv isolation in validation/verify_all.py and corrected sradius dimension logic.

  • Histogram Boundary Safety: Added index clamping to lookup_s2_region to prevent IndexError at poles.

  • CLI Standardization: Refined --even-collars flag logic for intuitive explicit opt-in.

  • Verification Suite: Integrated the unified validation/verify_all.py script and benchmark suite.

  • 100% Coverage: Reached 100% functional coverage across all maintenance and release tools.

  • Release Metadata Sync: Updated versioning and copyright dates for the 1.0 release.

  • Documentation Parity: Conducted a thorough audit of the benchmark suite documentation to ensure \(S^2\) and \(S^3\) default dimensions are explicitly noted across the User and Maintenance guides.

  • Master ToC Refinement: Redesigned the master Table of Contents (index.rst) to resolve appendix numbering conflicts and correctly sequence volume references.

  • Local Config Isolation: Isolated AI assistant skills and standardized virtual environment documentation with generic placeholders (VENV) for improved portability and privacy.

  • Environment Support: Formalized the requirement for Mayavi-enabled environments for 3D visualization documentation builds.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.9

  • Tag: release_0_99_9

  • Distribution: PyPI, SourceForge

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Core Coverage, 0 Ruff errors, 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.8

2026-04-03

Release 0.99.8 establishes the definitive architectural layout for the PyEQSP maintenance ecosystem and finalizes the JOSS submission artifacts.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Infrastructure Reorganization: Redesigned the maintenance workspace into intent-based release/ (distribution) and validation/ (quality) directories.

  • 100% Automation Coverage: Achieved full unit test coverage for the CI/CD suite via the test_ci_scripts.py framework.

  • JOSS Submission: Finalized the paper.md and paper.bib artifacts, harmonizing the project’s scholarly identity with the 2007 PhD thesis [Leo07] and 2024 JAS paper [Leo24-JAS].

  • Quality Gate Stability: Enhanced validation scripts with AST parsing to monitor paths inside Python Usage: blocks and enforced structural integrity in index.rst.

  • Hemisphere Refinement: Explicitly documented the even_collars implementation for \(S^3 \to \text{SO}(3)\) sampling applications.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.8

  • Tag: release_0_99_8

  • Distribution: PyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Core Coverage, 10.00/10 Pylint, 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.7

2026-03-22

Release 0.99.7 is a critical infrastructure synchronization release focusing on headless CI support and across-environment compatibility.

Key Features & Improvements

  • CI Pipeline Hardening: Implemented mocking for mayavi and PyQt5 in Sphinx to allow 3D visualization doctests to pass in headless CI runners.

  • Environment Isolation: Improved validation/verify_all.py to manage the execution PATH dynamically, resolving path-shadowing issues in complex virtual environments.

  • Legacy Compatibility: Reverted ruff.toml to the flat-format configuration to support institutional environments using older toolchain versions (e.g., Ruff 0.0.291).

  • Credential Logic: Refined upload_release.py to correctly handle standard TWINE_PASSWORD and token authentication.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.7

  • Tag: release_0_99_7

  • Distribution: PyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Core Coverage, 0 Ruff errors (legacy-mode), 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.6

2026-03-21

Release 0.99.6 establishes the final infrastructure for automated PyPI deployment and formalizes project governance standards.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Release Automation: Introduced the release/ suite (build_dist.py, pypi_readme_fix.py) to automate the clean-build-upload cycle.

  • Prose & Tonal Audit: Standardized on an active, professional voice across the User Guide and README, verified against Flesch-Kincaid readability baselines.

  • Bibliography Parity: Conducted a manual audit to align all citation keys across AUTHORS.md and documentation with canonical PhD thesis keys.

  • Governance: Added a Roles and Responsibilities matrix and credential management policies to the Maintenance Guide.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.6

  • Tag: release_0_99_6

  • Distribution: PyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% Core Coverage, 10.00/10 Pylint, 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.4

2026-03-17

Release 0.99.4 bifurcates the documentation suite and introduces automated orthography enforcement.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Two-Volume Documentation: Split the documentation into a dedicated User Guide (Vol 1) and Maintenance Guide (Vol 2).

  • Orthography Enforcement: Introduced automated project-wide enforcement of Australian -ize English (Oxford spelling).

  • Shell Compatibility: Standardized on quoted pip install extras for improved cross-platform reliability.

  • Visualization Cleanup: Removed legacy illustration stubs in favor of the specialized eqsp.visualizations module.

  • Infrastructure: Transitioned to flat-format linter configurations and enforced sys.path isolation for all documentation diagnostic tools.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.4

  • Tag: release_0_99_4

  • Distribution: PyPI, TestPyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% coverage, 10.00/10 Pylint, 0 Sphinx warnings.

0.99.3

2026-03-14

Release 0.99.3 standardizes project branding and enhances mathematical notation for distribution platforms.

Key Features & Improvements

  • PyEQSP Branding: Standardized the project identity as PyEQSP across all documentation, metadata, and benchmark artifacts.

  • Unicode Mathematics: Converted inline LaTeX to Unicode (S², S³, O(N)) in top-level Markdown for better rendering on PyPI and SourceForge.

  • Terminology Alignment: Replaced “legacy” terminology with “original Matlab toolbox” across the internal documentation.

  • Scaling Parity: Verified \(O(N^{0.6})\) scaling parity with the original thesis benchmarks.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.3

  • Tag: release_0_99_3

  • Distribution: PyPI, TestPyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] 100% coverage, 0 Ruff errors.

0.99.0

2026-03-08

Initial Beta release for public testing, introducing symmetric partitioning and the Sphinx documentation framework.

Key Features & Improvements

  • Symmetric Partitions: Introduced the even_collars parameter to enable precise S² hemisphere splitting and S³ → SO(3) sampling.

  • Sphinx Framework: Initialized the multi-format documentation system with MyST-Parser and localized cross-references.

  • CI Robustness: Established the validation/verify_all.py unified verification layer and GitHub Actions integration.

  • Docstring Audit: Completed the first project-wide audit and standardization of NumPy-format docstrings.

Release Metadata

  • Version: 0.99.0

  • Tag: release_0_99_0

  • Distribution: PyPI

  • Verification: [PASSED] Initial project-wide quality baseline met.