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Inklet 4.0 scope and release gates¶
4.10.0 is the current stable release. 4.0.0 released the scope frozen during RC1; 4.1.0 and 4.2.0 add plot types within it, 4.3.0 graduates four experimental packages to stable homes, and 4.4.0 deprecates the spellings and import paths that 5.0 removes. These gates continue to apply to later releases; experimental namespaces retain their documented opt-in status.
Product scope¶
4.0 connects plots, maps, diagrams, images and native 3D in reproducible Python figures and supported interactive documents. Authors should be able to select related content, edit named choices, save, reopen, replace inputs, resize and export without losing those choices or their meaning.
The release includes ordinary table-to-plot workflows, offline linked HTML, bounded technical/scientific adapters, a local composition editor, reusable compositions and source manifests. Rendering and numerical limitations must be explicit. Inklet does not become a CAD modeller or statistical inference engine.
Implemented foundations¶
- Native SVG/PDF/PNG, measured layout, clipping, scientific annotations, exact-color vector matrices, field rendering and shared-camera anatomical illustrations.
- Keyed tables, optional pandas/Polars adapters, facets, UTC/calendar axes, missing values, supplied intervals, linked maps and explicit data revisions.
- Standalone linked selections with data-table alternatives and static reconstruction.
- Named compositions and ports; saved labels, layout, styles and native cameras; undo/redo, orphan reporting and a Python-backed editor.
- Dev16 project bundles with verified asset manifests, explicit entity mappings, source-native image/drawing/field selection adapters and project reconstruction. These are experimental contracts; see figure projects.
Release acceptance checklist¶
| Gate | Current evidence | Remaining release work |
|---|---|---|
| Three reference workflows | Regional, engineering and calibrated-image reports have revision/browser/export tests; the mixed project adds bundling and editor reopen | Skip-free tools/acceptance.py gate implemented; review the exact candidate's results, including supported failure cases |
| Cross-content identity | Explicit local-to-entity mappings, canonical table joins, mapped drawings/images/fields and composition paths | Adapter subset declared in compatibility; verify exact candidate results |
| Reusable assets | Explicit source/license/unit inventory, copied files verified by SHA-256, trusted-factory reopening | Schema policy documented; experimental imports remain opt-in |
| Reproducible authoring | Layout, text, style and native-camera overrides; old schemas load; source revisions report conflicts | Supported controls and 3.1-to-4.0 migration documented; review candidate exports |
| Render/cache correctness | Numerical and adversarial contracts, clean/cached comparisons, independent PDF and complete-figure visual checks | Require green results on the exact candidate; review any visual changes explicitly |
| Offline interaction and accessibility | Chromium integration, keyboard controls and data-table alternatives | Linux Chromium target and keyboard/data-table evidence declared; review exact candidate results; other browsers remain unverified |
| Performance | Cold/cached/edit/resize/export benchmarks, native budgets, dense-field measurements | Project, reference-report and software-browser budgets implemented; review exact candidate measurements without relaxing thresholds |
| Distribution | Linux/macOS/Windows wheel checks, two Blender CPU versions, optional dependency checks | Complete candidate CI, sdist-to-wheel rebuild, isolated installs, exact artifact checksums and docs verification |
The acceptance guide maps workflows to commands and failure oracles. Release checks and compatibility define the distribution procedure and supported environments.
Frozen scope¶
The API and saved-file policy now declares the bounded 4.0 support scope. Individual axis-label editing, camera dragging, depth-aware browser 3D picking, interactive volumes, additional projections and broader GPU primitives are deferred beyond 4.0. Native camera inspector edits are included. Experimental APIs retain their opt-in namespace.
Full serialized Python projects and arbitrary geometry constraints are not implied by reusable manifests. Projects reopen through an explicitly supplied trusted recipe. Mapped image/mesh picking retains its source adapter's geometry limits.
Maintenance release requirements¶
- Keep the shared acceptance suite and all declared performance budgets green.
- Review candidate migration reports, saved-file compatibility and browser evidence. RC1 has a recorded cross-version review; archived 3.1 API and dev16 saved-file contracts now run in CI.
- Fix regressions within the supported scope; use a new package version for changed release files.
- Run the full release checks on the final commit and publish the exact verified artifacts.
Each release, such as 4.10.0, links to its exact-commit validation. Distribution checks include source-archive rebuilding, isolated wheel installs and matching GitHub/PyPI archive checksums. A passing prerelease does not automatically publish or designate a stable release.
After 4.0¶
4.4: deprecations¶
4.4 is the last 4.x feature release. It keeps every 4.x name working, but old
spellings, moved import paths, inklet.experimental.engineering,
BrowserScatter and composition layout schemas 0.1–0.4 now raise a
DeprecationWarning that names the replacement
(migration).
5.0: dense journal figures¶
5.0 is about dense, multi-panel journal figures that are right the first time:
- Placement engine. Labels, keys, insets and annotations are placed jointly across a whole figure, so a crowded panel stays readable without hand offsets.
- Broad plot catalogue. Covers the statistical, categorical, compositional,
hierarchical, network and genomics plots that journal figures use, with
consistent
color=/name=/size=keywords. - Palettes. A curated palette library, including colour-vision-safe and journal house palettes, that works with themes and asset harmonization.
- Removal of the 4.x deprecations. Every name, keyword, import path and saved-schema version that warns in 4.4 is removed.
5.x direction¶
Animation, timelines, transitions, camera paths, video/GIF and presentation authoring move to the 5.x direction, after the 5.0 figure work. Existing presentation styling presets continue to work. Earlier proposals and measurements are preserved in development history; they are not additional release checklists.