On behalf of the PySAL development team, I'm happy to announce the official release of PySAL 1.6. PySAL is a library of tools for spatial data analysis and geocomputation written in Python. PySAL 1.6, the seventh official release of PySAL brings the following key enhancements: ### Spatial weights (weights) * Optimized contiguity builder * Explicit checks for disconnected observations (islands) * Lightweight sparse weights class * Handle coincident points in construction of distance based weights * Optimized construction of knn weights ### Spatial regression (spreg) * Chow test on spatial autoregressive coefficient in error, lag and combination regime models * Kernel based weights specialized for HAC estimators * Group-wise heteroskedasticity correction for OLS models with regimes * Optimal GMM estimator to account for heteroskedasticity in TSLS models with regimes ### Spatial inequality (inequality) * Spatial decomposition of the Gini coefficient ### Computational geometry (cg) * Robust segment intersection tests among the 246 commits and bug fixes since the last release, 6 months ago. In addition, 1.6 marks the first release since PySAL moved from Google Code to GitHub ## PySAL modules * pysal.core — Core Data Structures and IO * pysal.cg — Computational Geometry * pysal.esda — Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis * pysal.inequality — Spatial Inequality Analysis * pysal.spatial_dynamics — Spatial Dynamics * pysal.spreg - Regression and Diagnostics * pysal.region — Spatially Constrained Clustering * pysal.weights — Spatial Weights * pysal.FileIO — PySAL FileIO: Module for reading and writing various file types in a Pythonic way ## Downloads Source distributions are available at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/PySAL Binary installers are availble from the [GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation](https://geodacenter.asu.edu/projects/pysal) PySAL can also be installed with pip or easy_install. ## Documentation The documentation site is here http://pythonhosted.org/PySAL/ ## Web sites PySAL's home is here http://pysal.org/ The developer's site is here https://github.com/pysal/pysal ## Mailing Lists Please see the developer's list here http://groups.google.com/group/pysal-dev Help for users is here http://groups.google.com/group/openspace-list ## Bug reports and feature requests To search for or report bugs, as well as request enhancements, please see https://github.com/pysal/pysal/issues ## License information See the file "LICENSE.txt" for information on the history of this software, terms & conditions for usage, and a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. Many thanks to [all who contributed!]( https://github.com/pysal/pysal/blob/master/THANKS.txt) Serge, on behalf of the PySAL development team. -- Sergio (Serge) Rey Professor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation Arizona State University http://geoplan.asu.edu/rey Editor, International Regional Science Review http://irx.sagepub.com