APEs: Astropy Proposals for Enhancement

APEs are documents to address non-trivial enhancements that require discussion and thought beyond a single Pull Request. This is intended to mirror the long-standing Python Enhancement Proposal process, but generally not quite as formally. Normally a proposal goes through various phases of consideration. Discussion is expected to take place using existing mechanisms (astropy-dev, github, hangouts, etc), and eventually a decision is made regarding whether the proposal should be accepted, rejected, or modified.

Accepted APEs

#	Title	Date	DOI
0	The Astropy Project Governance Charter	2021-Feb-19
1	APE Purpose and Process	2024-Feb-05
2	Astropy Release Cycle and Version Numbering	2013-Dec-11
3	Configuration	2013-Dec-10
4	Astropy Setup Helpers	2014-Jun-28
5	Coordinates Subpackage Plan	2014-Jan-22
6	Enhanced Character Separated Values table format	2015-Jan-26
7	NDData Plan	2014-Dec-17
8	Astropy Community Code of Conduct	2015-May-04
9	Timeseries object for Astropy	2023-Oct-20
10	Roadmap for Python 3-only support	2016-Aug-22
12	Using Cookiecutter for the package-template	2017-Mar-28
13	Vision for Astropy Spectroscopic Tools	2017-Dec-12
14	A shared Python interface for World Coordinate Systems	2018-Nov-09
15	An Updated Model for the Affiliated Package Ecosystem	2018-May-14
17	A roadmap for package infrastructure without astropy-helpers	2019-Dec-12
18	Adopt NEP 29 for CPython and Numpy Version Support	2021-Dec-25
19	Distributing Astropy Project Funding	2022-Feb-28
20	Formatting Code with Black	2022-Sep-23
21	Ending Long Term Support Releases	2023-May-31
22	Astropy Affiliated Packages with pyOpenSci	2024-Jan-29

Proposing a new APE

New APEs should be created using the APEtemplate.rst file in this repository. Fork the repository, copy APEtemplate.rst to APE##.rst where ## is the next free number on the list of APEs (don't forget to check the open PRs when finding this number). Issue a Pull Request with that file once you've written it up (little explanation is required in the PR itself given that the document has all the content - usually it's easiest to just paste in the abstract).

Note that there is not much point to making proposals unless someone or some group has signed up to implement it if the APE is accepted (typically this would involve the author or authors of the APE). Just issuing an APE in order to spur others to do work is not generally going to be received well. Generally, an implementation is expected before an APE can be considered fully accepted. For proposals that require extensive work that few are willing to perform without some assurance it will be accepted, provisional acceptance is an option. For serious consideration it is usually good to show that detailed technical aspects have been played with in real code rather (even if it isn't a complete implementation).

Finalizing APEs

The final decision on accepting or rejecting APEs lies with the Astropy Coordination Committee (CoCo). Once the community discussion on the APE has wound down, the committee discusses the APE and makes a final decision on acceptance or rejection. One of the committee members should then:

1. Fill in the "Decision rationale" section of the APE with a description of why the APE was accepted or rejected, including a summary of the community's discussion as relevant.

2. Update the "date-last-revised" to the day of merging and "status" to "Accepted" or "Rejected".

3. Leave a brief comment in the PR indicating the result.

4. Merge the PR with the above changes.

5. If the APE was accepted then continue with the remaining steps, otherwise stop now.

6. Upload the APE to Zenodo to give it a DOI. Log into the astropy team Zenodo account (not your personal account), go to https://zenodo.org/deposit/new, upload the .rst file, and set the fields to the following:

   Zenodo field	Set to
   Communities	The Astropy Project
   Upload type	Publication
   Publication type	Technical note
   Publication Date	The date-last-revised of the APE (which should be the same as the accepted date for new APEs)
   Title	Astropy Proposal for Enhancement <number>: <title> (APE <number>)
   Authors	The APE authors (directly from the APE text, but with ORCIDs if possible)
   Description	The APE abstract (copy/paste the rendered HTML from GitHub)
   License	CC-Attribution (default)
   Related/alternate identifiers	Github link to the APE file at the specific merge commit (e.g. https://github.com/astropy/astropy-APEs/blob/42951733ac42c0ea178d8df30705274a43c93091/APE1.rst) as "is supplemented by this upload". If this is a revised version, this should be the URL of the commit where the APE was revised.

7. Get the source for the DOI badge from the newly-created Zenodo record page by clicking on the DOI badge on the right side of the page and copying the reStructuredText source. You will need to update that with the "all versions" DOI number, which you can see under the "versions" section of Zenodo. (It is typically the first version minus 1.)

8. On GitHub (or locally) edit README.rst and add an entry for the new APE to the "Accepted APEs" table. Use the DOI link from the previous step. Add corresponding RST link refs for both the DOI link and the new APE. Preview the update and test the links to make sure they are all correct. Then commit directly to main (or PR if you prefer).

9. Send an email to astropy-dev announcing the acceptance In general this should just point to the accepted APE rather than providing additional decision rationale.

Updating APEs

In the cases where an updated APE requires updating (e.g., references to a new APE that supercedes it, clarifying information that emerges after the APE is accepted, etc.), changes can be made directly via PR, but the "date-last-revised" should be updated in the APE. Additionally, the Zenodo entry will need to be updated with a new version of the APE (not a completely new Zenodo entry), by using the "New version" button and then filling out the forms as described above.