Change Log

• 1.8.2 - Python 3.14 support and the addition of ‘manylinux’ tagged wheels. by j_berendt at 2026-02-07 13:24:50

  Note: There are no changes to the code in this release.
  
  Changes:
  - Addition of Python 3.14 wheels and classifier tags.
  - Addition of 'manylinux' tagged wheels (for PyPI).
  
  Released: 2026-02-07
  

• 1.8.1 - Addressed the inflated source archive size. by j_berendt at 2025-09-22 10:32:53

  There are no changes between this version and v1.8.0. A new version was
  created so the source archive on PyPI could be a reasonable size, rather
  than 64MB; as PyPI does not allow re-uploads.
  
  Released: 2025-09-22
  

• 1.8.0 - Addition of three new file signature checking functions. by j_berendt at 2025-08-26 10:58:58

  ** NOTE **
  From this version, only Python versions 3.10-3.13 are (officially)
  supported, with pre-built wheels supplied.
  
  UTL4-9: Add new file signatures
  - The following file signature tests have been added to the futils module,
    with aliases added to the utils module:
    - is7zip
    - isgzip
    - ispdf
  
  Other changes:
  - References to Python 3.7 changed to 3.10.
  
  Testing:
  - Testing completes successfully with all modules passing and 100% code
    coverage.
  - Pylint completes successfully with all modules reporting 10/10.
  
  Released: 2025-09-20
  

• 1.7.0 - Introduction of the f(ast)utils module. by j_berendt at 2024-12-14 14:52:35

  ** NOTE **
  This is the last version which officially support Python 3.7-3.9. All
  future updates will be focused on 3.10+ support. Wheels will no longer be
  built for Python <3.10.
  
  UTL4-6: Integrate new functionality from badsnakes.
  - A new C module (_futils) has been introduced, whose functions are
    wrapped by the current utils.py module for easy access and documentation.
  - The functions are C implementations of the file-checking utilities from
    badsnakes and include: isascii, isbinary and iszip.
  - Added the exclude_dirs function from badsnakes to the utils module.
  
  UTL4-7: Wrong badge links.
  - Addressed an issue where some badge links in the README file pointed to
    preqs, rather than to utils4.
  
  Compatibility warning:
  - Some functions have had keyword parameters enforced, which may break
    backwards compatibility.
  
  Testing:
  - All test cases pass for Python 3.12, with 100% code coverage.
    - Note: A couple tests fail for Python 3.7 - 3.9 owing to a reduction in
      underlying library support (e.g. matplotlib, cryptography) and the use
      of the walrus operator.
  - Pylint completes successfully with 10/10 for all modules.
  
  Released: 2025-01-04
  

• 1.6.0 - New utils functions. Snyk vulnerability patch. by j_berendt at 2024-11-13 09:16:54

  UTL4-1:
  - Added a 'get_removable_drives' function to the utils module.
    - This is a Windows-only function. If run on Linux, a NotImplementedError
      is raised.
  
  UTL4-4:
  - Added a 'strip_ansi_colour' function to the utils module to strip
    colour ANSI escape sequences from a string.
  
  UTL4-5: Snyk vulnerability
  - Addressed a Snyk vulnerability issue with the cryptography library.
    - Installed cryptography v43.0.3 into the development venv. The build
      script will generate a new requirements.txt file with this upgraded
      installation.
  
  Testing:
  - Test cases added for the new strip_ansi_colour and get_removable_drives
    functions.
  - Testing completes successfully with 100% code coverage.
  - Pylintr completes successfully with all modules reporting 10/10.
  
  Released: 2024-11-13
  

• 1.5.0 - Production release for version 1.5.0rc3. by j_berendt at 2024-09-17 14:04:43

  Wheel files:
  - All applicable wheels embedded into the dist directory for upload to
    PyPI.
  
  Testing:
  - Testing completes successfully with 100% code coverage.
  - Pylintr completes successfully at 100%.
  
  Released: 2024-09-18
  

• 1.5.0rc3 - Release candidate (3) for version 1.5.0. by j_berendt at 2024-08-14 16:47:50

  Changes:
  - Addressed a bug in setup.cfg where the new [build] table worked for
    Windows, but not Linux.
    - The [build] table is now added dynamically for Windows only.
  - Updated the homepage of the documentation to include a more accurate
    build instruction for Windows.
  
  Released: 2024-08-14
  

• 1.5.0rc2 - Release candidate (2) for version 1.5.0. by j_berendt at 2024-08-14 13:53:40

  Changes:
  - Added a compiler entry to setup.cfg (for Windows building).
  - Minor accuracy updates to the README file.
  - Updated the release checklist.
  - Updated minimum Python version to 3.7.
  - Updated references to Python 3.6 to Python 3.7.
  - Removed Python 3.6 from the documentation.
  
  Python 3.6 deprecation:
  - Although Python 3.6 is no longer *officially* supported, the library
    will still work on 3.6 in most cases. The reason for pulling official
    support is due to the difficulty in getting hold of a build environment
    for 3.6 as it's no longer supported.
  
  Testing:
  - Python 3.8 testing and coverage completed successfully at 100%.
  - Python 3.12 testing and coverage completed successfully at 100%.
  
  Released: 2024-08-14
  

• 1.5.0rc1 - Release candidate for version 1.5.0. by j_berendt at 2024-08-09 12:18:24

  Changes:
  - Added a README file for GitHub and PyPI.
  - Migrated the build from setup.py to pyproject.toml.
  - Minor documentation updates, primarily on the homepage.
  
  Testing:
  - Python 3.8 testing and coverage completed successfully at 100%.
  - Python 3.11 testing and coverage completed successfully at 100%.
  
  Released: 2024-08-12
  

• 1.5.0.dev1 - Updates to the mathfunc and stats modules. Bug fixes. by j_berendt at 2023-01-19 20:25:11

  mathfunc:
  - PHI: The former function 'phi' has been n renamed to 'PHI', as this
    calculates a *constant* value of phi. This adjustment also makes
    the 'phi' function name available for the new function.
  - phi: A new 'phi' function has been added to calculate Euler's totient
    (or phi function).
  - esieve: Updated to support a larger quantity of prime numbers due
    to a different C memory allocation method. Tested up to 100M
    successfully. Additionally, the esieve method has been updated to
    be more memory efficient.
  - is_permutation: A new function to determine if two positive integers
    are permutations of each other.
  
  stats:
  - A CUSUM calculation method has been added to the Stats class.
  - A Gaussian KDE calculation has been added to the Stats class.
  
  Bug fixes:
  - utils.clean_dataframe:
    - BUG: Integer and float values were converted to NaN during cleaning
           if a string was present in the field.
    - FIX: If a string is present in the field, the dtype is set to
           'object', however the integer and float values retain their
           original value.
  
  Released: 2023-01-25
  

• 1.4.0 - Addition of the dirsplit function to the filesys module. by j_berendt at 2022-08-12 12:34:16

  filesys:
  - The dirsplit function has been added which splits the files in a given
    directory into (n) sub-directories.
  - This function is designed to facilitate batch loading where the parent
    directory contains more files than the loader is designed to handle in
    a single run.
  
  Released: 2022-08-15
  

• 1.3.0 - Addition of the cutils module and a mathfunc fix. by j_berendt at 2022-07-18 10:21:45

  cutils.py:
  - Addition of the c-based utilities module.
  - memset function added to wipe a specific memory location.
  
  mathfunc:
  - Updated to simplify the logic in the is_pandigital method.
  
  Released: 2022-07-18
  

• 1.2.0 - New filesys module. Minor bug fix in mathfunc. by j_berendt at 2022-06-29 13:38:42

  filesys:
  - The filesys module contains a new function for comparing two files
    to verify if they are the same.
  - All test cases written with 100% test coverage.
  
  mathfunc:
  - Bug fix to the is_triangular function.
    - Addresses a bracketing issue where the wrong triangular value
      was being calculated, although the end result of the function
      was still correct.
  
  Released: 2022-06-30
  

• 1.1.0 - New ‘source check’ utility and mathfunc updates. by j_berendt at 2022-06-07 09:28:05

  srccheck:
  - A new utility has been added (source check) which enables the
    checksumming of files.
  - The primary design-purpose of this utility is to enable the caller
    application to *easily* perform checksums on its source code files
    during startup.
  
  mathfunc:
  - primefactors:
      - Introduced a primefactors function which generates a list of prime
        factors for a given N value.
  - fib:
      - Updated the Fibonacci sequence generator to return a list of values
        the in the sequence, up to N.
      - Updated the internal logic to use iteration, rather than
        linear calculation due to inaccuracy in higher values of N.
  - New methods added:
    - *intconcat*: Concatenate two integer values.
    - *int_nbits*: Return the number of bits occupied by (n).
    - *is_perfect*: Test is a number is a perfect number.
  - Changed C source code filenames for mathfunc from libmfunc to _mathfunc
    for clarity.
  - Test cases updated in support of these updates.
  
  stats:
  - A new 'stats' module has been added with the view of offering 'standard'
    statistical methods into a project, without the dependency overhead of
    a heavy data science library such as scipy.
  
  Released: 2022-06-13
  

• 1.0.0b1 - Bug fixes for the alpha 1 release. by j_berendt at 2022-04-07 12:28:17

  progressbar:
  - Addressed an issue introduced in v1.0.0a1, where a single whitespace
    character was left at the end of the progress bar.
    For example: 'Processing ... N% Complete '.
  - Whitespace removed.
  
  utils:
  - The 'ping' function has been updated to include a 'timeout' parameter.
  
  Documentation:
  - Changed code examples in the documentation which still referenced
    utils3 to utils4.
  
  Released: 2022-04-07
  

• 1.0.0a1 - Complete overhaul and update of utils3. by j_berendt at 2022-01-04 13:18:36

  Key changes:
  - Fully documented library.
  - Fully tested code - with 100% code coverage.
  - Fewer dependencies.
  - Better terminal colour support for Windows.
  - New mathfunc library, written in C for efficiency.
  - Cleaner, more efficient code, relative to utils3.
  
  Change overview:
  - Initial cleanup commit in preparation for the utils4 overhaul.
  - Setup file updated.
  - Addition of the C library (libmfunc) which provides the low-level
    logic for the mathfunc module.
  - Module revisions, testing and docs complete for the following modules:
    - cmaps
    - config
    - convert
    - crypto
    - dfdiff
    - dict2obj
    - log
    - mathfunc (libmfunc)
    - palette
    - progressbar
    - pywarnings
    - reader
    - registry (Windows-only, docs only)
    - reporterror
    - termcolour (docs only)
    - tickers (docs only)
    - timedelta
    - user_interface (docs only)
    - utils
    - validation
  
  New modules:
  - mathfunc:
    - This module is a wrapper for the C extension libary 'libmfunc' which
      contains high-iteration mathematical calculations. The low-level
      library has been implemented in C for speed and efficiency.
  - palette:
    - A new colour palette module containing all named CSS4 colours,
      accessible in both hex and RGB formats.
  - termcolour:
    - This module replaces the previous 'colours' module with extended, yet
      simplified ANSI sequence logic for colouring terminal text.
  
  Removed modules:
  The following module have been *removed* from utils4.
  - colours (replaced with the termcolour module)
  - database
  - get_datafiles
  
  Deprecations:
  - user_interface:
    - The 'get_input' method has been deprecated and replaced with the
      'prompt' method. A FutureWarning is raised when this method is used.
  - utils:
    - Many of the no-longer-used methods from the utils module have been
      removed, but will remain available in utils3 v0.15.1.
  - validation:
    - Many of the no-longer-used methods from the validation module have
      been removed, and its internal structure and logic have been
      simplified. If you require now-missing functionality, please continue
      to use the latest utils3 (v0.15.1).
  
  Other changes:
  - user_interface:
    - The user_interface module no longer requires an external JSON config
      file, as the config values have been integrated into the module itself.
    - A reported bug in the get_input (now prompt) method has been addressed
      where ANSI sequences were displayed in a Windows terminal, rather than
      colouring the text.
  - Updates to MANIFEST.in:
    - Includes the test suite in the source dist.
    - Includes *only* libmfunc* files in the libs directory.
  - setup:
    - On source and build setup calls, *copies* are made of the source dist
      file (.tar.gz) and the wheel file and renamed to use 'latest' in place
      of the version number.
  
  Testing:
  - Incorporated 'coverage' into the testing suite to ensure optimal code
    testing coverage.
  - Added .bat test runner files for easy testing on Windows.
  - The test cases have passed successfully on the following platforms and
    Python versions:
  
      Linux x86_64    Linux armv7l    Windows x86_64
      ------------    ------------    --------------
      3.6.15          3.6.15          3.6.8
      3.7.13          3.7.13          3.7.9
      3.8.13          3.8.13          3.8.10
      3.9.12          -               -
      3.10.4          -               -
  
  Documentation:
  - Documentation now uses the read-the-docs theme.
  - Guidance included for building utils4 from source.
  - Layout and navigation updated to provide easier/clearer access to the
    designed area.
  - Added a spell checker to the documentation generation process.
  
  Released: 2022-04-04
  

• 0.15.1 - Progress bar bug fix. by j_berendt at 2021-12-14 12:48:54

  progressbar.py:
  - BUG:
    - When run on Windows, the progress bar initialisation method
      re-initialised colorama for each instance of the progress bar.
    - This caused the progress bar to slow down substantially after
      about 200 iterations, and in some cases caused programs crashes
      due to a stack overflow.
  - FIX:
    - Moved the colorama initialisation into the __init__ module of
      the utils3 package, and only to initialise if on Windows.
  
  Released: 2021-12-14
  

• 0.15.0 - Addition of the convert module. by j_berendt at 2021-10-26 20:00:10

  convert.py:
  - The convert module is used to perform various data type conversions
    such as bin -> ascii, ascii -> hex, hex --> bin, etc.
  - All conversions supported for: binary, ascii, hexidecimal and integer.
  
  Released: 2021-10-26
  

• 0.14.1 - Update to the reader module. by j_berendt at 2021-10-20 13:14:36

  reader.py:
  - The read_xls method has been updated to accept and apply date formats
    to ensure the call to pandas.read_csv parses the date columns
    correctly.
  
  Other changes:
  - Updated the docs to reflect Python 3.5+.
  - Various (non-functional) code base changes to address pylint detections.
  
  Released: 2021-10-20
  

• 0.14.0 - Addition of the reader.py module. by j_berendt at 2021-08-25 13:00:14

  reader:
  - The reader module was developed to read old (Excel 2) workbooks
    into a DataFrame.
  
  Other changes:
  - Updated the setup.sh script to add/update the requirements.txt file.
    - Minor updates to output formatting.
  - Updated pylintr to v0.3.0.
  
  Released: 2021-08-25
  

• 0.13.3 - User interface module bug fix. by j_berendt at 2020-10-08 07:35:41

  Details:
  - BUG: Addressed a bug in the user_interface module where all warning
    messages were displayed in any application instantiating
    UserInterface, although the application itself had set warnings to
    'ignore'.
  - FIX: Rather than ignoring, then resetting the warnings, a
    (previously unknown) argument has been passed into the `enable()`
    function of `win_unicode_console`to bypass the stdin and stdout
    encoding check. It was the mismatch in stdin and stdout encoding
    which threw the RuntimeWaring, causing the need for warning
    suppression.
  
  Other changes:
  - New pylintr
  
  Released: 2020-10-08
  

• 0.13.2 - Updated reporterror module to include the module name. by j_berendt at 2020-05-15 15:32:13

• 0.13.1 - Bug fix to database module. Sphinx updates. by j_berendt at 2020-05-12 19:09:32

  database.py:
  - Removed spurious message stating the database must be connected first.
  
  Sphinx:
  - Added create and update scripts or Linux.
  

• 0.13.0 - New modules added. by j_berendt at 2020-05-05 15:45:28

  crypto:
  - Module added to provide light wrapper around base64 and hashlib
    libraries, with additional functionality.
  
  cmaps:
  - Module added to provide a light-weight/easy-access wrapper around
    matplotlib's colour maps.
  - Added deprecation warnings to colour mapping methods in the utils
    module.
  

• 0.12.0 - Added the DataFrame differencing module (dfdiff). by j_berendt at 2020-01-21 21:25:55

• 0.11.1 - Updated user_interface to include a blue heading. by j_berendt at 2019-09-24 09:51:28

• 0.11.0 - Added the timedelta module. by j_berendt at 2019-07-22 12:29:44

• 0.10.4 - Updated setup so win_unicode_console is not required for by j_berendt at 2019-03-25 20:33:02

  Linux installations.
  

• 0.10.3 - Added wheel and dist package. by j_berendt at 2019-02-07 16:21:58

• 0.10.3 - Updated registry.py so it *only* tries to work on Windows. by j_berendt at 2019-02-07 15:59:58

• 0.10.3 - Merge fix for _version.py. by j_berendt at 2019-02-07 15:51:00

• 0.10.3 - Various stability updates across the library. by j_berendt at 2019-02-07 08:54:01

  - Removed unrequired packages from the setup file.
    Often times utils3 is imported for a key feature, and you don't
    always need Oracle connection capability, or matplotlib, etc.
    Additionally, this should make installation and updates less painful.
  
  - Latitude and longitude rules updated to:
    - Accept 0 as a valid lat/lon value.
    - Return False to 90.01 (lat) and 180.01 (lon) as decimals were
      previously accepted for lat/lon values of 90 and 180 respectively.
  
  - The ._busy member of tickers.Spinner and tickers.WaitTicker has been
    renamed to .busy, as this threw pylint error when accessed externally.
    *CAUTION*:
    This has not been updated for backwards compatability.  If you use
    ._busy in your code, please update your code.
  
  - Dev note: The `pylintr` shell script has been added.
  

• 0.11.0 - Various stability updates across the library. by j_berendt at 2019-02-07 08:54:01

  - Removed unrequired packages from the setup file.
    Often times utils3 is imported for a key feature, and you don't
    always need Oracle connection capability, or matplotlib, etc.
    Additionally, this should make installation and updates less painful.
  
  - Latitude and longitude rules updated to:
    - Accept 0 as a valid lat/lon value.
    - Return False to 90.01 (lat) and 180.01 (lon) as decimals were
      previously accepted for lat/lon values of 90 and 180 respectively.
  
  - The ._busy member of tickers.Spinner and tickers.WaitTicker has been
    renamed to .busy, as this threw pylint error when accessed externally.
    *CAUTION*:
    This has not been updated for backwards compatability.  If you use
    ._busy in your code, please update your code.
  
  - Dev note: The `pylintr` shell script has been added.
  

• 0.10.2 - Added new dist files. by j_berendt at 2018-12-24 09:00:45

• 0.10.2 - Added IP addr and geo coordinate validation rules. by j_berendt at 2018-12-21 17:34:56

• 0.10.1 - Optional error catch added to tickers. by j_berendt at 2018-12-20 16:32:50

• 0.10.0 - Setup and dist files complete. by j_berendt at 2018-12-18 16:22:47

• 0.10.0 - Added the pywarnings.py module. by j_berendt at 2018-12-18 16:07:15

• 0.10.0 - Added the colours.py module. by j_berendt at 2018-12-18 14:56:42

• 0.10.0 - Pre update cleanup. by j_berendt at 2018-12-18 14:41:44

• 0.9.0 - Updated changelog and docs. by j_berendt at 2018-10-29 16:11:08

• 0.9.0 - Added distributions. by j_berendt at 2018-10-29 16:06:57

• 0.9.0 - Added a module containing program wait tickers. by j_berendt at 2018-10-29 15:57:05

• 0.8.2 - Re-added sdist tar.gz and wheel for installations. by j_berendt at 2018-10-24 11:29:14

• 0.8.1 - Removed dist as it didn’t include all required files. by j_berendt at 2018-10-24 11:10:42

• 0.8.0 - Added dist wheel. by j_berendt at 2018-10-23 14:39:16

• 0.8.0 - Added validation.py to handle various validation rules. by j_berendt at 2018-10-23 14:22:25

• 0.8.0 - Various minor Py35 compatibility bug fixes. by j_berendt at 2018-10-23 14:00:13

• 0.8.0 - Added __version__ as an attribute to utils3. by j_berendt at 2018-10-23 13:34:35

• 0.7.0 - Added package dist. by j_berendt at 2018-09-25 16:52:35

• 0.7.0 - Updated to remove RuntimeWarning on UserInterface instantiation. by j_berendt at 2018-09-25 16:37:01