v0.4.0

This release features several new developer tools, expanded yaml support, Py36 support, some package version freezing, and a few bugfixes

Change Log

Versioning Changes

• Python 3.6 is now supported, and support for Python 3.3 has been dropped as numpy>=1.12.0 does not support Py33 #170
• pylint frozen to 1.7.1 #165
• numpy<1.13.0 to address an issue with pyquantities (python-quantities/python-quantities#129). It looks like they have finally addressed the issue, so a follow-up IK release will relax this constraint.

New Features

YAML
With the switch from PyYAML to ruamel.yaml==0.14.12, our yaml configuation ability has been expanded:

• Can now specify a file-like object for config.load_instruments in addition to the previous ability to provide a filename #164
• In the yaml file, instruments can directly have properties set, which are then immediately applied. See documentation for config.load_instruments.

New Developer Tools

• Added support for named structs to help with (un)packing data to/from instruments communicating in a more binary fashion #169
• Added set_cmd parameter to all property factories and rename name parameter to command #172. This allows instruments with asymetric command schemes to still utilize the property factory tools.

Bugfixes

• Timeout and terminator were fixed for USBTMC connections #173
• Fixed write_raw for VISA connections #177, however the VISACommunicator has no tests, so more issues probably exist.