PyGMT v0.8.0 released
Announcing PyGMT v0.8.0, more GMT remote dataset loaders and cross-compatible with GMT 6.3/6.4!
The PyGMT team is closing off the year with version v0.8.0! Here are the highlights 
:
- Added support for tab auto-completion for all GMT default parameters (#2213)
- Created functions to download GMT remote datasets (#1786)
- Wrapped the ternary module (#1431)
- Added an intro tutorial for creating contour maps (#2126)
Read through the changelog for the full list of changes. Installation/upgrade 
instructions are at Installing — PyGMT! Note that this version supports GMT 6.4, but is also compatible with GMT 6.3 
. Go try it online at try-gmt.
Ever wanted some grid data to play with fast? Get easy access to several GMT remote datasets 
loaded directly into an xarray.DataArray format, complete with documented inline examples. Big thanks to @willschlitzer for undertaking this massive effort!
| EarthByte Global Earth Seafloor Crustal Age |
IGPP Global Earth Free-Air Anomaly |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| EGM2008 Global Earth Geoid | IGPP Global Earth Vertical Gravity Gradient |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| EMAG2 Global Earth Magnetic Anomaly Model |
WDMAM World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| GEBCO Global Earth Relief (including sub-ice elevation) |
IGPP Global Earth Relief |
|---|---|
 |
 |
For the beachball 
focal mechanism plotters, the pygmt.Figure.meca offset bug 
has been fixed for Python dictionary and pandas.DataFrame inputs, though there are still some issues with numpy.ndarray inputs (see beachball offsetting doesn't work for pandas/dict/ndarray input · Issue #2016 · GenericMappingTools/pygmt · GitHub). Feel free though to report new bugs using our refreshed bug template on GitHub, your feedback is what helps us to improve!
Indeed, user friendliness 
and consistency is a key part of PyGMT. The pygmt.config function now supports auto-completion 
for all 136 possible GMT configs (thanks @seisman!) to make your map look just the right way. There has also been dozens of 
documentation-related fixes done by @yvonnefroehlich (who also managed this release) from small typos to big improvements 
in the gallery examples! Once again, thanks to the entire PyGMT Team for making this release possible .
New gallery examples
Two new gallery examples are showing how to plot vertical and horizontal bars as well as how to set up a ternary diagram by @mgrund. Furthermore, there is a new introduction tutorial regarding contour maps by @willschlitzer.
| Vertical and horizontal bars | Ternary diagram | Contour maps tutorial |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
Roadmap to v0.9.0
What’s next for 2023? Here’s are a few in the pipeline, but also check out the GitHub issues board for more! Use the good first issue label to filter easy ones you can help out with!
- Features/enhancements
- Documentation improvements
friendly PyGMT tutorial that is a good roadmap for new GMT/PyGMT users (We invite you to get involved in these efforts by reaching out on GitHub 
!
Upcoming deprecations
- v0.9.0 (Mar 2023)
- Remove
pygmt.dataset.load_hotspots/load_japan_quakes/load_mars_shape/load_ocean_ridge_points/load_sample_bathymetry/load_usgs_quakes, please usepygmt.datasets.load_sample_data()instead (FutureWarning raised since PyGMT v0.6.0)
- Remove
- v0.10.0 (Jul 2023)
Figure.text: Remove parameter ‘incols’, use ‘use_word’ instead (FutureWarning raised since PyGMT v0.8.0)
- v0.12.0
- All plotting methods: Remove aliases
xshift(X) andyshift(Y) (FutureWarning raised since PyGMT v0.8.0) pygmt.Figure.plot,pygmt.Figure.plot3d,pygmt.Figure.rose,pygmt.Figure.velo: Remove parameter ‘color’, use ‘fill’ instead (FutureWarning raised since PyGMT v0.8.0)pygmt.Figure.wiggle: Remove parameter ‘color’, use ‘fillnegative’ or ‘fillpositive’ instead (FutureWarning raised since PyGMT v0.8.0)
- All plotting methods: Remove aliases
- v1.0.0
- Short form aliases (e.g.
R) will not work if long form aliases (e.g.region) are available (SyntaxWarning raised since PyGMT v0.4.0, see #1316)
- Short form aliases (e.g.
The compatibility matrix is listed at PyGMT, so make sure you keep things up to date!
Conference presentations/workshops
It’s been an exciting year with the EGU22 PyGMT short course in March and SciPy 2022 talk in July. Oh yes, here’s @maxrjones’s talk in case you missed it, the slides and demo notebook are at GitHub - maxrjones/scipy2022: Submission for a talk about PyGMT at SciPy2022.
Want to see more events like this? The calendar for 2023 is currently empty, but if anyone is keen to host something for the next EGU General Assembly, FOSS4G, SciPy, AGU Fall Meeting or some other regional conferences, do let us know on the forum and we can add it to the list!
Onwards
P.S. Share the word on Twitter @gmt_dev 
and Instagram @genericmappingtools 