ZIC Email

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re doing well.

After working continuously for several months, the ZEP0001 - V3 Specification is ready for review by you, the Zarr implementations! 🎉 The goal of this process is to move towards supporting the V3 specification in as many implementation as possible.

There have been significant changes to the V3 since it was proposed in July 2022. We have maintained a GitHub project board to keep track of the progress. We’re pleased to confirm that all crucial issues have been marked completed after holding several ZEP meetings.

Let me review how the process will work. We have created this issue to track the approvals from the ZSC, ZIC and the broader Zarr community.
Specific technical feedback about the specification should be made via narrowly scoped issues on the Zarr specs repo that link to this issue.

Now, according to the section, ‘How does a ZEP becomes accepted’ - ZEP0000, a ZEP must satisfy three conditions for approval:

• Unanimous approval of the Zarr Steering Council
• Majority approval of the Zarr Implementations Council
• And, no vetos from the Zarr Implementations Council

As an implementation council member, you have three options for your vote:

• YES - Approve the V3 Spec. This indicates that your implementation intends to implement support for the V3 core spec (but not necessarily any extensions).
• ABSTAIN - This would be appropriate if you do not intend to implement the V3 spec.
• VETO - As as ZIC member, you have the ability to veto a ZEP, including this one. However, stongly wish to avoid this situation for V3, given its foundational nature for the future of Zarr.

We request you, the ZIC, review the new version of the Zarr specification and let us know your thoughts. We’ve listed some steps to read and understand the new specification version more quickly. They are as follows:

• Optional but recommended: Have a cursory read of the Zarr V2 Specification
• After this, go through the section ‘Comparison with Zarr V2’ in the new Specification
• Once done, go through Core V3 Specification
  • Please thoroughly read the new Specification; if there are any issues, we’ll address them ASAP!
  • One of the most critical sections in the V3 is how the metadata is organised; please have a look here
• Gather your thoughts
• Optional but recommended: begin implementing the spec experimentally.
• Cast your vote by dropping a comment on the issue here

We understand that the tasks mentioned above take time, accounting for the daily work life of the council members. Therefore, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could cast your vote by no later than 6th May 2023, 23:59:59 AoE.

And that’s it! Once we’re past the voting phase, the V3 Specification will be officially adopted!
Feel free to check out an experimental Python implementation of V3 here.

Please let us know if there are any questions. Thank you for your time.

@zarr-developers/implementation-council