QCoDeS 0.35.0

[jenshnielsen]

QCoDeS 0.35.0 (2022-10-03)

NOTE: this release includes changes from :doc:0.35.0b1,
refer to that changelog for details of those changes.

In this release a large refactoring of the QCoDeS modules organization has taken place.
Among other changes the instrument module has been split into a parameters and
instrument module, the dond functions have been moved to the dataset module
and several methods removed from the public API of the utils module.

The new API is documented in the :ref:api section of the QCoDeS homepage.

Going forward we aim to establish a policy where the QCoDeS public API is defined
by modules explicitly documented in the :ref:api and importable from submodules at most
one level deep. I.e. from qcodes.instrument import InstrumentChannel is supported but
f`rom qcodes.instrument.channel import InstrumentChannel is considered unsupported.

Importing from previously existing locations should continue to work
but it is recommended to update to the new API.
In the future we may deprecate and eventually remove these modules
but no firm date is set for this.

Please report any issues you may see with importing from the previously existing API
or if you depend on any functions, classes etc. not available from the new public API.

This release also includes a significant but still incomplete refactoring of the QCoDeS
instrument drivers in qcodes.instrument_drivers. Many but not all drivers have been updated
to use names that conform to the standard documented
here <../examples/writing_drivers/Creating-Instrument-Drivers.ipynb#Naming-the-Instrument-class>__
i.e. they use CamelCase as other classes and are named as InstrumentvendorModel
and are importable directly from the instrument vendor module i.e.
from qcodes.instrument_drivers.AimTTi import AimTTiPL068P .
Older names for the classes are still importable from their original places unless explicitly
documented otherwise. In the future we may deprecate and eventually remove the instrument driver classes whos names don't conform to the standard,
but no firm date is set for this.

Breaking Changes:

• The standard metadata as defined by pep621 has moved from setup.cfg
  to pyproject.toml. This should have no user facing consequences unless
  you install qcodes from source using a very old version of pip (<19)
  or use unusual pip configurations. (migrate setuptools pep621 config to pyproject.toml #4382#)

• :class:VisaInstrument no longer calls :meth:VisaInstrument.set_address as part of its
  initialization. If you customize :meth:VisaInstrument.set_address in a subclass you may have
  to adapt that class. (:pr:4397)

• The deprecated method check_error has been removed from the visa instrument class. (remove deprecated check_error from visa instrument #4426)

• The unused attribute shared_kwargs on the Instrument class has been removed. (Remove unused shared_kwargs attribute from instrument #4427)

• The following InstrumentChannel classes have changed name for consistency.
  This is expected to be a change with few user facing implications unless you are explicitly
  subclassing the mentioned classes.

  • DG1062Burst has changed name to RigolDG1062Burst
  • DG1062Channel has changed name to RigolDG1062Channel (Upgrade Rigol drivers to conform to our standard #4538)

• DataSet.get_metadata method for retrieving a metadata value for a
  given tag is now case-sensitive with respect to the tag.
  For example, if metadata was added with dataset.add_metadata('something', 1),
  it can only be retrieved by using its exact casing of the tag,
  dataset.get_metadata('something'), and not e.g.
  dataset.get_metadata('SomeThinG'). In the previous versions of QCoDeS,
  any casing of the tag in DataSet.get_metadata would work and return the
  value stored under that tag. Note that this change brings consistency
  with how getting metadata via the dataset.metadata works:
  dataset.metadata['something'] does return the value, and
  dataset.metadata['SomeThinG'] does not. (DataSet.get_metadata to return value only if the casing of the tag matches the column name in the database #4658)

Improved:

• ChannelTuple and ChannelList has gained the ability to call methods defined on the channels
  in the sequence in a way similar to how QCoDeS Functions can be called. (ChannelTuple: add ability to call regular callable #4292)

• dond has gained the ability to sweep multiple parameters at the same time enabling the creation of more complex
  measurements. (Extend do_nd with option to perform "Parallel sweeps" #4325)

• Improve performance of sqlite3 converters and adapters used to write and read in the database.

  Get rid of sqlite3.Row and irrelevant unpacking to list. (Significant performance improvements to AddResult / GetParameter #4446)

• Settings of QCoDeS Validators are now available as properties (mostly read-only),
  e.g. min_value and max_value of the Numbers validator can now be accessed
  via numbers_validator_instance.min_value and numbers_validator_instance.max_value (Expose validator settings as properties #4602)

• Fixed a bug in the QCoDeS JSON encoder that would trigger an infinite recursion for snapshots containing
  bytes (bytestrings with a b prefix). (Avoid recursion for bytes / bytearrays in json encoder #4621)

• InstrumentBase and ParameterBase now call snapshot() on _meta_attrs attributes that inherit from Metadatable. (InstrumentBase and ParameterBase now call snapshot() on _meta_attrs attributes that inherit from Metadatable. #4655)

• The Dataset no longer prints upgrade progressbars when upgrading an empty database. This means that
  the progressbar will no longer be shown when creating a new database. (Update ipykernel requirement from ~=6.20.2 to ~=6.21.1 #4969)

Improved Drivers:

• A parameter auto_freq_ref was added to the Keysight.N51x1 class.
  From the Keysight manual:
  This command enables or disables the ability of the signal generator to
  automatically select between the internal and an external reference oscillator.

  In addition, the val_mapping dictionary of the rf_output parameter is now using the create_on_off_val_mapping function. (Added the parameter auto_freq_ref to N51x1 Keysight signal generators class #4472)

• Add get_idn to AMI 430 3D virtual instrument driver so that it does not raise a warning when added to a station (Add get_idn to AMI 430 3D virtual instrument driver that does not raise warning when added to station #4610)

New:

• :class:InstrumentBase has a property label that can host
  a human-readable label/title of the instrument.
  The label can be set in the init. (Give InstrumentBase a label that can be nicely formatted #4460)

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This discussion was created from the release QCoDeS 0.35.0.