Changelog#

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

0.1.0a14 - 2026-07-24#

Added#

  • Bpod publishes live trial events over the PUB/SUB channel as a tagged union of typed messages.

  • RemoteBpod accepts an event_callback that receives each live trial-event message.

  • ServiceHost.get_metadata for accessing per-request connection metadata from within a request handler.

  • ServiceHost.publish for broadcasting events over the PUB/SUB channel; ServiceClient decodes them per its new event_type parameter.

  • ServiceHost remembers the TCP ports last bound for a caller-supplied uuid (stored in the user state directory) and reuses them on restart; explicit port_rep / port_pub arguments take precedence. ServiceHost.has_subscribers: the host tracks PUB/SUB subscriptions and publish drops messages before encoding while nobody is listening.

  • ServiceClient.request accepts an optional timeout; the client recovers cleanly after a timed-out request.

Changed#

  • Add UTC timezone to trial DataFrame timestamps.

  • ServiceClient adopts the host’s serialization format during the handshake, replacing the per-request trial-and-error fallback.

  • the WELCOME handshake carries the PUB channel’s TCP port instead of full TCP addresses.

  • errors raised by bpod_core.ipc are now uniformly ServiceError subclasses

  • remote method calls (BpodRequestCall / BpodRequestData) are validated against an explicit allowlist instead of dispatching to arbitrary attributes.

Fixed#

  • ServiceClient no longer blocks indefinitely when the host dies mid-request.

  • exceptions with non-serializable attributes no longer break error replies from ServiceHost.

  • resolved several shutdown races between close() and the event threads / publish().

  • ServiceIterator.close() now terminates an iteration blocked in __next__ (e.g., with timeout=None) instead of leaving the consumer waiting forever.

0.1.0a13 - 2026-06-18#

Changed#

  • further work on bringing RemoteBpod to parity with Bpod.

  • ExtendedSerial.read_struct and write_struct methods accept precompiled structs.

  • reduced public interface of bpod_core.ipc.

  • improved documentation.

0.1.0a12 - 2026-04-30#

Just some minor improvements …

Changed#

  • further refinements to documentation.

  • cleaned up rendering of Graphviz graphs.

Removed#

  • removed unused misc.DocstringInheritanceMixin

0.1.0a11 - 2026-04-24#

Added#

  • ExtendedSerial.read_struct_iter and ExtendedSerial.stream_struct methods.

  • misc.SuggestionDict for key lookup with typo suggestions.

  • added optional trial_number parameter to Bpod.run method.

Changed#

  • replaced NamedTuples with misc.SuggestionDict for Bpod.inputs and Bpod.outputs

  • refactored Sphinx documentation and API reference.

0.1.0a10 - 2026-04-16#

Added#

  • Bpod.address property — exposes the ZeroMQ address of the running instance.

  • Bpod.peek_data - read trial data before trial end.

  • misc.ByteEnum - an extended IntEnum that caches its values as bytes.

  • Timer fields in StateMachine now accept timedelta values in addition to floats.

  • bpod CLI entry point for launching a Bpod instance that can be connected to via TCP Unix Sockets.

  • state machine column added to trial data output (hash of the FSM)

Changed#

  • renamed Bpod.send_state_machine to Bpod.run.

  • removed Bpod.run_state_machine.

  • switched to Polars LazyFrame for storing trial data.

  • replaced use of Queue with SimpleQueue.

  • switched Bpod.module field from NamedTuple to dict.

  • replaced hashlib.blake2b with xxhash for state machine hashing.

  • cache validation and compilation of state machines.

  • StateMachine.hash now returns bytes instead of str.

0.1.0a9 - 2026-04-02#

Added#

  • bpod.is_ready property indicating whether a compiled FSM is loaded and ready to run

  • bpod.is_queued property indicating whether an FSM is queued to run after the current one

  • bpod.get_data for returning trial data after a state machine run.

Changed#

  • renamed BNC input events and output actions to TTLIn and TTLOut.

  • replaced MD5 hashing of fsm.StateMachine with blake2b.

  • improved readability of ValidationError messages in fsm.StateMachine.

  • state machine runs are now handled by three separate threads:

    • ReadThread for serial communication with the Bpod,

    • EventThread for handling and structuring the incoming data, and

    • SoftcodeThread for executing soft-codes.

Fixed#

  • reorganization of finalizers for better garbage collection.

0.1.0a8 - 2026-03-04#

Just a quick bugfix release …

Changed#

  • ipc.ServiceHost: set Zeroconf to listen on all interfaces, reorder WelcomeData fields, and improve type hints.

  • event handler callback type hint to return None instead of Any.

  • refactor CI workflows.

0.1.0a7 - 2026-03-01#

Added#

  • com.find_ports for finding serial ports that match given filter criteria.

  • com.verify_serial_discovery for checking if a serial device sends an expected discovery message.

  • convenience functions for reading and writing integers in com.ExtendedSerial.

  • misc.extend_packed for extending a bytearray by multiple values of the same format.

  • misc.DocstringInheritanceMixin for inheriting docstrings from base classes.

  • ipc.LocalServiceAdvertisement: local service advertisement and discovery

  • ipc.iter_services and ipc.ServiceIterator for discovering services.

  • bpod.discover_remote_bpod for discovering remote Bpod instances.

  • more examples.

Changed#

  • more verbose debug logging during state machine runs.

  • replace unmaintained appdirs dependency with platformdirs.

  • switch to zero-based indexing for global counters, timers, conditions and soft-codes.

  • added file locking to misc.SettingsDict.

  • switch to using ZMQ multipart messages for communication.

  • renamed ipc.DualChannelHost / ipc.DualChannelClient to ipc.ServiceHost / ipc.ServiceClient.

  • restructured bpod module into several submodules.

  • zero-copy behavior on send path of ipc.ServiceClient and receive path of ipc.ServiceHost.

Fixed#

  • decoupled finalizers and event loops from instance references.

0.1.0a6 - 2025-10-29#

Added#

  • Initial work on cached state machine validation: fsm.StateMachine.check

Changed#

  • com.ExtendedSerial no longer supports NumPy types, integers, strings and iterables.

  • refactoring of com.ChunkedSerialReader

Removed#

  • com.to_bytes

  • dependency on Pandas

0.1.0a5 - 2025-09-03#

Added#

  • fsm.to_file and fsm.from_file for export/import of state machines.

  • YAML import/export for state machines

  • Work on documentation: Finite-State Machines

Changed#

  • moved state machine structure from msgspec Struct back to Pydantic Model

  • merged fsm_types module back into fsm

  • renamed parameters for add_state method: state_change_conditions -> transitions and output_actions -> actions

0.1.0a4 - 2025-08-25#

Added#

  • ipc.DualChannelHost and ipc.DualChannelClient

  • JSON import/export for state machines

  • example state machines

Changed#

  • improved export of state machines to graphviz

  • improved settings management

  • moved state machine structure from Pydantic Model to msgspec Struct

0.1.0a3 - 2025-08-04#

Added#

  • state machine assembly

  • state machine thread

  • ZMQ communication module

  • basic settings management

Changed#

  • switched package management from PDM to uv.

0.1.0a2 - 2025-05-07#

Added#

  • pydantic model for state machine

Changed#

  • further refactoring of the code

  • renamed serial module to com to avoid confusion with PySerial.

0.1.0a1 - 2025-04-22#

Changed#

  • major reorganization of the existing codebase.

  • renamed serial_extensions module to serial.

Removed#

  • removed SerialSingleton class.

0.1.0a0 - 2025-04-17#

First alpha release. Nothing works.