improve whats new and comparison

Author: wholmgren

docs/sphinx/source/comparison_pvlib_matlab.rst

@@ -11,3 +11,44 @@ Please see our
 and
 `PVSC 2015 abstract <https://github.com/UARENForecasting/pvlib-pvsc2015/blob/master/pvlib_pvsc_42.pdf?raw=true>`_ 
 for more information.
+
+Here are some of the major differences between the latest pvlib-python build 
+and the original Sandia PVLIB\_Python project, but many of these
+comments apply to the difference between pvlib-python and PVLIB\_MATLAB.
+
+
+Library wide changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Remove ``pvl_`` from module names.
+* Consolidation of similar modules. For example, functions from ``pvl_clearsky_ineichen.py`` and ``pvl_clearsky_haurwitz.py`` have been consolidated into ``clearsky.py``. 
+* Removed ``Vars=Locals(); Expect...; var=pvl\_tools.Parse(Vars,Expect);`` pattern. Very few tests of input validitity remain. Garbage in, garbage or ``nan`` out.
+* Removing unnecssary and sometimes undesired behavior such as setting maximum zenith=90 or airmass=0. Instead, we make extensive use of ``nan`` values.
+* Changing function and module names so that they do not conflict.
+* Added ``/pvlib/data`` for lookup tables, test, and tutorial data.
+
+
+More specific changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Add PyEphem option to solar position calculations. 
+* ``irradiance.py`` has more AOI, projection, and irradiance sum and calculation functions
+* Locations are now ``pvlib.location.Location`` objects, not structs.
+* Specify time zones using a string from the standard IANA Time Zone Database naming conventions or using a pytz.timezone instead of an integer GMT offset. We may add dateutils support in the future.
+* ``clearsky.ineichen`` supports interpolating monthly Linke Turbidities to daily resolution.
+
+Documentation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Using readthedocs for documentation hosting.
+* Many typos and formatting errors corrected.
+* Documentation source code and tutorials live in ``/`` rather than ``/pvlib/docs``.
+* Additional tutorials in ``/docs/tutorials``.
+
+Testing
+~~~~~~~
+
+* Tests are cleaner and more thorough. They are still no where near complete.
+* Using Coveralls to measure test coverage. 
+* Using TravisCI for automated testing.
+* Using ``nosetests`` for more concise test code. 

docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.1.0.txt

@@ -3,15 +3,86 @@
 v0.1.0 (March 17, 2015)
 -----------------------
 
-This is the first true release of the pvlib-python project.
-As such, this document is a little hard to write.
+This is the first official release of the pvlib-python project.
+As such, a "What's new" document is a little hard to write.
 There will be significant overlap with the to-be-written document
 that describes the differences between pvlib-python and PVLIB\_Matlab.
 
+
+API changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Remove ``pvl_`` from module names.
+* Consolidation of similar modules. For example, functions from ``pvl_clearsky_ineichen.py`` and ``pvl_clearsky_haurwitz.py`` have been consolidated into ``clearsky.py``. 
+* Return one DataFrame instead of a tuple of DataFrames.
+* Change function and module names so that they do not conflict.
+
+
 New features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+* Library is Python 3.3 and 3.4 compatible
+* Add What's New section to docs (:issue:`10`)
+* Add PyEphem option to solar position calculations. 
+* ``irradiance.py`` has more AOI, projection, and irradiance sum and calculation functions
+* TMY data import has a ``coerce_year`` option
+* TMY data can be loaded from a url (:issue:`5`)
+* Locations are now ``pvlib.location.Location`` objects, not "structs".
+* Specify time zones using a string from the standard IANA Time Zone Database naming conventions or using a pytz.timezone instead of an integer GMT offset. We may add dateutils support in the future.
+* ``clearsky.ineichen`` supports interpolating monthly Linke Turbidities to daily resolution.
+
+
+Other changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Removed ``Vars=Locals(); Expect...; var=pvl\_tools.Parse(Vars,Expect);`` pattern. Very few tests of input validitity remain. Garbage in, garbage or ``nan`` out.
+* Removing unnecssary and sometimes undesired behavior such as setting maximum zenith=90 or airmass=0. Instead, we make extensive use of ``nan`` values.
+* Adding logging calls, removing print calls.
+* Improved PEP8 compliance.
+* Added ``/pvlib/data`` for lookup tables, test, and tutorial data.
+
+
+Documentation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Using readthedocs for documentation hosting.
+* Many typos and formatting errors corrected (:issue:`16`)
+* Documentation source code and tutorials live in ``/`` rather than ``/pvlib/docs``.
+* Additional tutorials in ``/docs/tutorials``.
+* Clarify ``pvsystem.systemdef`` input (:issue:`17`)
+
+
+Testing
+~~~~~~~
+
+* Tests are cleaner and more thorough. They are still no where near complete.
+* Using Coveralls to measure test coverage. 
+* Using TravisCI for automated testing.
+* Using ``nosetests`` for more concise test code. 
 
 
 Bug fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
+
+* TODO: Fix DISC algorithm conditional evaluation (:issue:`6`)
+* TODO: Prevent DISC algorithm from modifying input zenith Series (:issue:`24`)
+* Many more bug fixes were made, but you'll have to look at the detailed commit history.
+
+
+Contributors
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+This list includes all (I hope) contributors to 
+`pvlib/pvlib-python <https://github.com/pvlib/pvlib-python>`_,
+`Sandia-Labs/PVLIB_Python <https://github.com/Sandia-Labs/PVLIB_Python>`_,
+and
+`UARENForecasting/PVLIB_Python <https://github.com/UARENForecasting/PVLIB_Python>`_.
+
+* Rob Andrews
+* Will Holmgren
+* bmu
+* Tony Lorenzo
+* jforbess
+* Jorissup
+* dacoex
+* alexisph