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- Current status of sub-packages

# Current status of sub-packages

Astropy has benefited from the addition of widely tested legacy code, as well as new development, resulting in variations in stability across sub-packages. This document summarizes the current status of the Astropy sub-packages, so that users understand where they might expect changes in future, and which sub-packages they can safely use for production code.

The classification is as follows:

| Planned
| Actively 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.

The current planned and existing sub-packages are:

Sub-Package |  | Comments
--- | --- | ---
astropy.analytic_functions |  | New in v1.0.
astropy.constants |  | Constants were changed to `Quantity` objects in v0.2. Since then on, the package has been stable, with occasional additions of new constants.
astropy.convolution |  | New top-level package in v0.3 (was previously part of `astropy.nddata`). No major changes since, likely will maintain backwards compatibility but possible future additions or improvements.
astropy.coordinates |  | New in v0.2, major changes in v0.4. Subsequent versions should maintain a stable/backwards-compatible API, following the plan of APE 5. Further major additions/enhancements likely, but with basic framework unchanged.
astropy.cosmology |  | Incremental improvements since v0.1, but mostly stable API. Pure functional interface deprecated in v0.4.
astropy.io.ascii |  | Originally developed as `asciitable`, and has maintained a stable API.
astropy.io.fits |  | Originally developed as `pyfits`, and retains an API consistent with the standalone version.
astropy.io.misc |  | The functionality that is currently present is stable, but this sub-package will likely see major additions in future.
astropy.io.votable |  | Originally developed as `vo.table`, and has a stable API.
astropy.modeling |  | New in v0.3. Major changes in v1.0, significant additions planned. Backwards-compatibility likely to be maintained, but not guaranteed.
astropy.nddata |  | Significantly revised in v1.0 to implement APE 7. Major changes in the API are not anticipated, broader use may reveal flaws that require API changes.
astropy.photometry |  |
astropy.stats |  | Likely to maintain backwards-compatibility, but functionality continually being expanded, so significant additions likely in the future.
astropy.table |  | Incremental improvements since v0.1, but mostly stable API.
astropy.time |  | Incremental improvements since v0.1, API likely to remain stable for the foreseeable future.
astropy.units |  | New in v0.2. Adapted from `pnbody` and integrated into Astropy. Current functionality stable with intent to maintain backwards compatibility. Significant new functionality is likely to be added in future versions.
astropy.utils |  | Contains mostly utilities destined for internal use with other parts of Astropy. Existing functionality generally stable, but regular additions and occasional changes.
astropy.visualization |  | New in v1.0, and in development.
astropy.vo |  | Virtual Observatory service access and validation. Currently, only Simple Cone Search and SAMP are supported.
astropy.wcs |  | Originally developed as `pywcs`, and has a stable API for now. However, there are plans to generalize the WCS interface to accommodate non-FITS WCS transformations, and this may lead to small changes in the user interface.