Stability of Subpackages

This document summarizes the stability of PlasmaPy’s subpackages so that users understand where they might expect changes in the future, and which subpackages they can safely use for production code. Please note that backward compatibility is not guaranteed for the 0.*.* series of development releases. Starting with version 1.0.0, the major version number will be incremented when a release contains backward incompatible changes.

The classification is as follows:

	Planned
	Actively being developed. Be prepared for possible significant changes.
	Reasonably stable. Any significant changes/additions will generally include backwards-compatiblity.
	Mature. Additions/improvements possible, but no major changes planned.
	Pending deprecation. Might be deprecated in a future version.
	Deprecated. Might be removed in a future version.

PlasmaPy’s planned and existing subpackages are:

Subpackage		Comments
plasmapy.atomic		This package is being actively developed and expanded, and there may be backward incompatible changes to the API.
plasmapy.classes		The plan for PlasmaPy's base classes is being planned in PLEP 7, which is in the process of being written. The existing functionality is unstable.
plasmapy.mathematics		The mathematics subpackage is in the early stages of development.
plasmapy.physics		The physics subpackage may undergo significant reorganization with potentially major changes to the API. We anticipate that there will be major additions to this package.
plasmapy.transport		The transport subpackage will likely undergo significant reorganization and expansion with major changes to the API.
plasmapy.utils		The utils subpackage may undergo significant reorganization with potentially major changes to the API.