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_posts/2023-10-03-nanoarrow-0.3.0-release.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Apache Arrow nanoarrow 0.3.0 Release"
+date: "2023-10-03 00:00:00"
+author: pmc
+categories: [release]
+---
+<!--
+{% comment %}
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+(the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+{% endcomment %}
+-->
+
+The Apache Arrow team is pleased to announce the 0.3.0 release of
+Apache Arrow nanoarrow. This release covers 42 resolved issues from
+4 contributors.
+
+## Release Highlights
+
+See the
+[Changelog](https://github.com/apache/arrow-nanoarrow/blob/apache-arrow-nanoarrow-0.3.0/CHANGELOG.md)
+for a detailed list of contributions to this release.
+
+## C library
+
+The nanoarrow 0.3.0 release includes a number of bugfixes and improvements
+to the core C library and IPC C extension:
+
+- Improved bit packing/unpacking utilities and performance in tandem with an
+  [experiment to use bitmasks in pandas](https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/54506)
+- Added support for building and consuming interval arrays
+- Fixed full validation of offset buffers for specific types of corrupted data
+  that caused overflow
+- Fixed crashes that occurred for certain types of corrupted data and improved
+  error messages that were misleading for other types of corrupted data.
+
+## R bindings
+
+The nanoarrow R bindings are distributed as the `nanoarrow` package on
+[CRAN](https://cran.r-project.org/). The 0.3.0 release of the R bindings includes
+improvements in type support and stability. Notably:
+
+- Conversion to/from `bit64::integer64()` is now supported
+- Warnings and errors for conversions that are invalid or
+  may loose accuracy were improved
+- Extension types and extension type registration are now supported
+- Conversion of dictionary-encoded arrays to R vectors is now supported
+- Conversion of map arrays to R vectors is now supported
+- Improved performance of stream conversion to R vectors for streams of
+  indeterminate length (e.g., database results from ADBC).
+
+## Experimental non-CPU support
+
+With the addition of the
+[Arrow C Device data interface](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/format/CDeviceDataInterface.html)
+comes an opportunity for nanoarrow to handle non-CPU (e.g., GPU) data. The
+[nanoarrow_device](https://github.com/apache/arrow-nanoarrow/tree/main/extensions/nanoarrow_device)
+extension was drafted in tandem with the specification and Arrow C++ implementation.
+While it is not an official part of the 0.3.0 release, it is available in an
+experimental state for those interested in its use and/or development.
+
+## Contributor experience
+
+The 0.3.0 release features adoption of `pre-commit` hooks to improve consistency
+and contributor experience with a complex repository. Special thanks to
+[@WillAyd](https://github.com/WillAyd) for setting this up!
+
+## Contributors
+
+This initial release consists of contributions from 4 contributors in addition
+to the invaluable advice and support of the Apache Arrow developer mailing list.
+
+```
+$ git shortlog -sn d4f038ce58655ba6e996cdae165f1b33c3919d51..apache-arrow-nanoarrow-0.3.0 | grep -v "GitHub Actions"
+    40  Dewey Dunnington
+     7  William Ayd
+     2  Bryce Mecum
+     1  Dane Pitkin
+```