QCoDeS/Qcodes: Changelog for QCoDeS 0.6.0

The September 2019 release of QCoDeS

New:

• Improvements to dataset performance. Especially when doing concurrent reads and writes from the db. The QCoDeS experiment sqlite database is now created in WAL mode. Note that if you perform a manual backup of a db in wal mode you should also backup any .wal file along with the .db file. See https://www.sqlite.org/wal.html for additional details. (#1685)
• New highlevel tutorial for beginners <../examples/15_minutes_to_QCoDeS.ipynb>_. (#1693)

Improved:

• Improvements to API docs. (#1660, #1691, #1702, #1706)
• Notebook Dataset Performance: Correct typos and add figure. (#1683)
• Add logging to measurement runner __exit__. (#1695)
• Link tutorial to "Getting started", "README". (#1703)
• Don't use deprecated matplotlib cbar.get_clim. (#1724)
• Make DataSet.paramspecs always return ParamSpec. (#1720)
• Add Station.close_all_registered_instruments. (#1713, #1726)
• Station: fail hard when adding an Instrument with a name that is already registered. (#1714)

New Instrument drivers:

• Rigol DS1074Z oscilloscope. (#1652)

Improved Drivers:

• Alazar: refactor AcquisitionInterface out of AcquisitionController. (#1694)
• Alazar: Fix reference to method in error message. (#1697)
• Alazar: Simulator. (#1707)
• AMI430: Fix issue with changing field unit. (#1599)
• AMI430 test: fix flakiness from asserting timestamps of Parameters. (#1718)
• Dynacool: Add blocking and non-blocking ramp. (#1586)
• Keysight B1500: Sampling Measurement mode. (#1607)
• Keysight B1500: Show connection message on init. (#1677)
• Keysight B1500: Edit example notebook to set averaging during sampling measurement. (#1696)
• Keysight N6705B: Fix syntax error in parameter. (#1669)
• Keysight B220x: Show connection message on init. (#1677)
• Keysight E8267D: Add missing parameters. (#1705, #1708)
• Lakeshore 325: Add two parameters (resistance, heater_output). (#1711)
• Yokogawa GS200: Exclude/Include snapshot depending on mode. (#1699)

Under the hood:

• Significant improvements to import time of QCoDeS. (#1678)
• Updates to requirements. (#1686, #1690, #1688)
• Use recommended way of running xvfb on Travis. (#1687)
• CI: Link commands in all scripts by their exit code, use mostly 'bash'. (#1712)
• Make test GetLatest stricter about timestamps. (#1719)
• Test using python 3.8 prerelease. (#1722)

Breaking Changes:

• The default config value for gui.plotlib has changed from "all" to null. This means the legacy plot modules MatPlot and QtPlot are no longer imported into the top level qcodes namespace by default. To restore the original behaviour change your config file locally.
• capture_dataframe is no longer available from qcodes.logger. To use it import it from qcodes.logger.log_analysis.
• Deprecate old QDac driver in favour of QCac_channels driver. (#1578)
• Adding an instrument to the QCoDeS station with an already existing name is now a hard error rather than falling back to constructing a new unique name.(#1713)
• Deprecate qcodes.utils.helpers.make_unique as it is unused in QCoDeS. (#1713)