============================ Announcing PyTables 2.1rc1 ============================ PyTables is a library for managing hierarchical datasets and designed to efficiently cope with extremely large amounts of data with support for full 64-bit file addressing. PyTables runs on top of the HDF5 library and NumPy package for achieving maximum throughput and convenient use. In PyTables 2.1rc1 many new features and a handful of bugs have been addressed. This is a release candidate, so, in addition to the tarball, binaries for Windows are provided too. Also, the API has been frozen and you should only expect bug fixes and documentation improvements for 2.1 final (due to release in a couple of weeks now). This version introduces important improvements, like much faster node opening, creation or navigation, a file-based way to fine-tune the different PyTables parameters (fully documented now in a new appendix of the UG) and support for multidimensional atoms in EArray/CArray objects. Regarding the Pro edition, 3 different kind of indexes have been added so that the user can choose the best for her needs. Also, and due to the introduction of the concept of chunkmaps in OPSI, the responsiveness of complex queries with low selectivity has improved quite a lot. And last but not least, it is possible now to sort completely tables that are ordered by a specific field, with no practical limit in size (up to 2**48 rows, that is, around 281 trillion of rows). More info in: http://www.pytables.org/moin/PyTablesPro#WhatisnewinforthcomingPyTablesPro2.... In case you want to know more in detail what has changed in this version, have a look at ``RELEASE_NOTES.txt`` in the tarball. Find the HTML version for this document at: http://www.pytables.org/moin/ReleaseNotes/Release_2.1rc1 You can download a source package of the version 2.1rc1 with generated PDF and HTML docs and binaries for Windows from http://www.pytables.org/download/preliminary Finally, and for the first time, an evaluation version for PyTables Pro has been made available in: http://www.pytables.org/download/evaluation Please read the evaluation license for terms of use of this version: http://www.pytables.org/moin/PyTablesProEvaluationLicense For an on-line version of the manual, visit: http://www.pytables.org/docs/manual-2.1rc1 Resources ========= Go to the PyTables web site for more details: http://www.pytables.org About the HDF5 library: http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ About NumPy: http://numpy.scipy.org/ Acknowledgments =============== Thanks to many users who provided feature improvements, patches, bug reports, support and suggestions. See the ``THANKS`` file in the distribution package for a (incomplete) list of contributors. Many thanks also to SourceForge who have helped to make and distribute this package! And last, but not least thanks a lot to the HDF5 and NumPy (and numarray!) makers. Without them PyTables simply would not exist. Share your experience ===================== Let us know of any bugs, suggestions, gripes, kudos, etc. you may have. ---- **Enjoy data!** -- The PyTables Team -- Francesc Alted