aladinor/raw2zarr: Release v0.5.0

Highlights

• Fixed critical parallel vs sequential write mode equivalence issues
• Improved template-compliant architecture for both write modes
• Enhanced CI/CD reliability with explicit conda-forge configuration
• Comprehensive test coverage improvements

Fixed

• VCP Config: Changed follow_mode, prt_mode, and sweep_mode dtypes from int32 to U50 to match actual xradar string data types
• Templates: Excluded scalar variables from 3D array creation - these variables now correctly have only (vcp_time,) dimension instead of (vcp_time, azimuth, range)
• Templates: Added follow_mode and prt_mode scalar variables to sweep templates to ensure parallel mode matches sequential mode structure
• Templates: Materialize VCP root variables before template write using .compute() to persist scalar metadata values (longitude, latitude, altitude)
• Writer: Cast string variables to U50 for template compatibility during parallel region writes
• CI: Added explicit conda-forge channel configuration to micromamba setup to fix package resolution failures
• Environment: Removed duplicate pandas entry and added version pins to pip-installed packages (icechunk>=1.1.9, arraylake>=0.25)

Changed

• Architecture: Moved template operations (create_vcp_template_in_memory, merge_data_into_template) from builder/executor.py to new templates/template_ops.py module for better separation of concerns

Added

• Tests: Comprehensive unit tests for template_ops.py module (14 tests covering template creation and data merging)
• Tests: Enhanced parallel vs sequential equivalence test with parametrization for remove_strings and template placeholder handling
• Tests: Added U50 string dtype to config validation test's valid dtypes list

Performance

• Zarr: Added async concurrency configuration (async.concurrency: 24) for improved parallel write performance

Full Changelog: https://github.com/aladinor/raw2zarr/compare/v0.4.1...v0.5.0