"Spatial Data Science Languages: commonalities and needs" - that a preprint 11(!) of us wrote together as one of many outcomes of two workshops held in Münster (2023) and in Prague (2024). It summarised where we are, what we share between R, Python and Julia, what are the common challenges, lessons and recommendations - https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16686
Big thanks belongs especially to @edzer who kickstarted the whole initiative! And to all the others who participated!
arXiv.orgSpatial Data Science Languages: commonalities and needsRecent workshops brought together several developers, educators and users of software packages extending popular languages for spatial data handling, with a primary focus on R, Python and Julia. Common challenges discussed included handling of spatial or spatio-temporal support, geodetic coordinates, in-memory vector data formats, data cubes, inter-package dependencies, packaging upstream libraries, differences in habits or conventions between the GIS and physical modelling communities, and statistical models. The following set of insights have been formulated: (i) considering software problems across data science language silos helps to understand and standardise analysis approaches, also outside the domain of formal standardisation bodies; (ii) whether attribute variables have block or point support, and whether they are spatially intensive or extensive has consequences for permitted operations, and hence for software implementing those; (iii) handling geometries on the sphere rather than on the flat plane requires modifications to the logic of {\em simple features}, (iv) managing communities and fostering diversity is a necessary, on-going effort, and (v) tools for cross-language development need more attention and support.
New in PyLandStats! 
![pycsw is an OGC CSW server implementation written in Python. pycsw fully implements the OpenGIS Catalogue Service Implementation Specification [Catalogue Service for the Web]. Initial development ...](https://files.techhub.social/cache/preview_cards/images/042/391/286/original/aa3d48c431d2d2e5.png "pycsw is an OGC CSW server implementation written in Python. pycsw fully implements the OpenGIS Catalogue Service Implementation Specification [Catalogue Service for the Web]. Initial development ...")
! Thank you to the pygeoapi community for all of the valuable contributions! 
The "Geocomputation with Python" book has been officially published today! 
