Version 0.6 Updates

Version 0.6.1

New features

  • style=”auto” parameter: A new cleaner syntax for automatic style detection. Instead of auto_style=True, users can now pass style="auto" to plotting methods. The auto_style parameter is now deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

    # New syntax (recommended)
chart.pcolormesh(data, style="auto")

# Old syntax (deprecated)
chart.pcolormesh(data, auto_style=True)

  • cmap as alias for colors: The cmap parameter can now be used interchangeably with colors in all plotting methods and in Style initialisation. An error is raised only when both are specified together.

    # These are equivalent
chart.pcolormesh(data, colors="viridis")
chart.pcolormesh(data, cmap="viridis")

# Also works in Style initialisation
style = Style(cmap="plasma", levels=[0, 10, 20])

# Error only when both specified
chart.pcolormesh(data, cmap="viridis", colors="plasma")  # ValueError

Version 0.6.0

New features

  • Sources module redesign: The sources module has been redesigned around a Strategy pattern, providing clearer separation of data source extraction logic. Most of this is not visible to users, but it lays the groundwork for future improvements in data handling and plotting consistency.

    Key improvements include:

    • New DimensionInfo class for representing plot dimensions with units-aware abstractions

    • Dimension-aware string formatting (e.g., {y.units}, {z.variable_name})

    • Unit conversion and regridding now performed within Source objects for consistency

    • Enhanced x, y, z extraction with plot context awareness for better handling of ambiguous cases

    • Completely rewritten xarray extraction logic with improved documentation

    (PR #161)

  • Slight adjustments to the built-in Denmark and Ireland domains to better align with coastlines and islands (PR #151).

  • Faster Natural Earth layer rendering: Natural Earth layers (e.g., coastlines, borders) now render 2-3x faster, with up to 10x speedup in some cases. The improvement uses pre-transformation of geometry to the map’s projection via a new transform_first parameter, enabled by default for features like coastlines where it produces no visible differences. For features with long straight segments that may be susceptible to warping, the parameter remains available but disabled by default. (PR #162)

  • Multiple data sources for ancillary shapes: Ancillary shape methods (coastlines, borders, countries) now support multiple data sources including Natural Earth and GISCO. The borders and countries methods now formally support GISCO sources, and a new nuts_regions convenience method has been added for plotting NUTS regions. (PR #163)

Bug fixes

  • Fixed auto-range detection in contourf to properly handle infinite values alongside NaN values, preventing errors when plotting data containing infinities (Issue #155).