Merge branch 'release_note-v0.2' into release-v0.2

release.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+Release notes
+=============
+
+.. _release_v0.2:
+
+Release v0.2
+------------
+
+Major changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Use Tornado for worker-scheduler communication.
+  Communication between scheduler and workers is now using ``tornado`` instead of ``dask`` to be more lightweight and reliable. Furthermore, a worker client is persistent across blocks, allowing it to request and receive multiple blocks to process on. This change is heavily motivated by the long queuing delay of ``lsf``/``slurm`` and bring-up delay of ``tensorflow``.
+  Furthermore, the user now has an API for acquiring and releasing block, allowing them to write their own Python module implementation of workers.
+  By :user:`Tri Nguyen <trivoldus28>`, :user:`Jan Junke <funkey>`
+
+* Introduce :class:`Task` and :class:`Parameter`, and :func:`daisy.distribute` to execute :class:`Task` chain.
+
+* Changed :class:`SharedGraphProvider` and :class:`SharedSubGraph` APIs, and added many new features  
+  including ability to have directed and undirected graphs. For the mongo backend, also added the ability to
+  store node/edge features in separate collections, and filter by node/edge feature values.
+
+Notable features
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* :class:`Task` sub-ROI request.
+  A sub-region of a task's available ``total_roi`` can be restricted/requested
+  explicitly using the :func:`daisy.distribute` interface.
+
+  Example:
+
+  ::
+
+    task_spec = {'task': mytask, 'request': [daisy.Roi((3,), (2,))]}
+    daisy.distribute([task_spec])
+
+  The ``request`` will be expanded to align with ``write_roi``.
+
+* Multiple :class:`Task` targets.
+  A single :func:`daisy.distribute` can execute multiple target tasks simultaneous.
+
+  Example:
+  ::
+
+    task_spec0 = {'task': mytask0}
+    task_spec1 = {'task': mytask1}
+    daisy.distribute([task_spec0, task_spec1])
+
+  Tasks' dependencies (shared or not) will be processed correctly.
+
+* Periodic status report.
+  Daisy gives a status report of running/finished tasks, blocks running/finished
+  status, and an ETA based on the completion rate of the last 2 minutes.
+
+* Z-order block-wise scheduling.
+
+
+Maintenance
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Drop support for Python 3.4.x and 3.5.x.
+  We have moved to using Python's ``asyncio`` capability as the sole backend for Tornado. Python 3.4.x does not have asyncio. While Python 3.5.x does have asyncio built-in, its implementation is buggy.