20060831:  version 0.9.2
           * fixed several bugs in drawlsmask method.
           * removed buggy optimizations for cylindrical projections not
             crossing the Greenwich meridian.
           * can now specify map projection region by setting width and height
             in projection coordinates (in meters) instead of specifying
             lat/lon of upper right and lower left corners.
20060727:  version 0.9.1
           * make sure llcrnrlat and llcrnrlon are not at poles for mercator.
           * use Eric Firing's new quiver in Basemap quiver method.
           * interp functions now work with masked arrays.
           * added some sanity checks for projection parameters.
           * change from classic to new-style classes.
           * removed deprecated 'createfigure' method.
           * fixed some creeping numpy'isms (which caused breakage
             when numarray or Numeric were used).
20060609:  version 0.9:
           * updated for new matplotlib aspect ratio handling.
           Now maps will always have the correct aspect ratio.
           * if resolution keyword is set to None when Basemap
           instance is created, no boundary data sets are needed
           (methods to draw boundaries, like drawcoastlines, will 
           raise an exception).
           * update to proj4 module - renamed pyproj to avoid 
           conflicts with proj4 module from CDAT.
           * createfigure method deprecated, since maps
           will now automatically have the correct aspect ratio.
           * Added new projections Xpstere, Xplaea, Xpaeqd (where X
           can be n or s).  These are special-case, polar-centric
           versions of the stereographic, lambert azimuthal equal area
           and azimuthal equidistant projections that don't require
           you specify the lat/lon values of the lower-left and upper-right
           corners.  
           * fixed bugs in plot, scatter and mapboundary methods for
           miller, cylindrical and mercator projections.
           * 'crude' and 'low' resolution boundary datasets now installed
           by default.  basemap_data package now only needed for to get
           'intermediate' and 'high' resolution datasets.
           * moved all packages under single lib/ directory so
           setuptools' "develop" command works properly.
           * Added sinusoidal projection.
           * bilinear interpolation routines can return masked arrays with
           values outside range of data coordinates masked.
           * New examples (warpimage.py - warping an image to
           different map projections, polarmaps.py - simplified polar
           projections, garp.py - 'World According to Garp' maps).
           * pcolormesh method added.
           * drawlsmask method added for masking oceans and/or land areas.
           5 minute land-sea mask dataset added.
20060222:  version 0.8.2:  Minor bug fixes, mostly in examples.
20060203:  version 0.8.1:  Huge speedups for numpy
           (no significant differences for Numeric and numarray).
20060114:  version 0.8: added numpy compatibility
20051118:  version 0.7.2.1: 
           There was a problem running examples that read pickle files.
           The pickle files were created with numarray, and the
           data would not be read correctly using Numeric.  Fixed so
           that pickles are created with Numeric and Numeric is used
           to read them.
20051018:  version 0.7.2:
           * No longer requires numarray (interp function no
           longer uses numarray.nd_image).
           * Modified to work with the new ContourSet returned
           by contour and contourf.
           * Axes frame turned off by default for non-rectangular
           projections ('ortho','robin' and 'moll').
           * Added createfigure method to create a figure with the 
           same aspect ratio as the map using pylab.figure.
           * Resets subplot.params defaults so that default
           axes rectangle will have both a width and height of 0.9
           (this ensures that the figure size determines that aspect
           ratio of the plot).
           * readshapefile method raises an exception if the vertices
           look like they are not in geographic (lat/lon) coordinates.
20050921:  version 0.7.1:
           Fixed several bugs in meridian/parallel labelling and
           Cylindrical projections that crossed greenwich were not
           being handled properly.
           Added 'fmt' keyword arg to drawmeridians and drawparallels
           (default is '%g').
           Fixed bug in 'readshapefile' that prevented boundaries from
           being drawn for 'cyl','merc' or 'miller' projections when the
           map region did not cross the greenwich meridian.
           Modified imshow method so 'origin' keyword is accepted (it
           was always set to 'lower' previously).
           Added testgdal.py example showing how to plot raster
           geospatial data with gdal module (gdal.maptools.org).
           Meridians and parallels labelled correctly when
           rcParams['text.usetext']=True.
20050914:  version 0.7:
           Optimizations to reduce the time it takes to create
           a Basemap class instance - now nearly 4 times faster
           when using resolution='i'.
           Added 'h' (high) resolution boundary data.
           Added datasets for major rivers, "drawrivers" class method.
           Fixed some errors in boundaries datasets.
           Boundary datasets now installed in a separate package.
           Should now handle Numeric to numarray conversions internally,
           so removed warning when rcParams['numerix'] != 'numarray'.
           Changed default area_thresh so it depends on coastline
           resolution (10000 for 'c' declining to 10 for 'h').
20050901:  version 0.6.2:
           Warning issued if numerix = 'Numeric' (a user reported
           crashes due to botched Numeric --> numarray conversions).
           Changes to proj4 wrapper to make Basemap instances pickle-able.
20050814:  version 0.6.1:
           Added hurrtracks.py example (plot hurricane tracks from
           shapefile).
           Now includes pyshapelib (extracted from Thuban source).
20050811:  version 0.6:
           sf bug #1254163 (make sure lat/lon limits of projection are floats)
           wiki_example.py and plotclimdiv.py examples added.
           Added 'readshapefile' method for reading and plotting data
           from ESRI shapefiles (requires pyshapelib from Thuban).
           plotclimdiv.py is an example that illustrates this.
20050628:  version 0.5.2:
           fixed bug in meridian labelling when lon > 360 or lon < -180.
           Now fully "pylab free" if 'ax' keyword is used in Basemap.__init__
           or all of the Basemap methods that do drawing.
20050626:  version 0.5.1:
           Added ability to specify an existing axis instance in
           all Basemap methods (instead of just using current one).
           Default is still to use current axis instance.
           Full control of font properties for parallel and meridian
           labels (now uses unicode instead of mathtext for degree symbol).
20050602:  version 0.5
           Added Orthographic, Mollweide and Robinson projections.
           Added 'drawmapboundary' method to draw a
           line around the map projection region.
           Added 'suppress_ticks' keyword to Basemap.__init__
           It's True by default, but can be set to False if you
           want to label ticks in native map projection coordinates.
           Added 'rotate_vector' method to rotate vectors to map
           projection coordinates (without interpolation, as in
           'transform_vector' method).
           Modified pcolor, contour, contourf methods to use
           masked arrays.  Now requires matplotlib-0.81
           drawparallels and drawmeridians methods now take optional
           keyword arguments 'xoffset' and 'yoffset', which control how
           far from the edge of the map labels are drawn.
20050511:  version 0.4.3
           Added Oblique Mercator.
           great circle calculations now use vincenty's equations
           for an ellipsoid.
20050510:  version 0.4.2
           transform_vector now does a simple rotation of the vector
           from geographic to map coordinates, preserving the vector
           magnitude (removed 'preserve_magnitude' keyword).
           Minor bugs in Miller and Mercator projections fixed.
           Added Gnomonic, Cassini-Soldner and Polyconic projections
           (now 13 projections supported).
20050509:  version 0.4.1
           Miller projection was erroneously referred to by the name
           'miller' (instead of 'mill') - fixed.  Added the ability
           to specify the major and minor sphere radii by specifying
           the 'rsphere' keyword in __init__ to be a tuple instead of
           a scalar.
20050505:  version 0.4
           added support for miller cylindrical, equidistant conic,
           and azimuthal equidistant projections.  Bugs fixed in
           coastline drawing and continent filling methods.
20050427:  version 0.3.3
           fillcontinents modified to not fill lakes (they
           are actually still filled, but with axis background color).
20050420:  version 0.3.2 - code cleanups and docstring typo fixes.
           env var BASEMAP_DATA_PATH can now be used to point to
           data files in a non-standard install (i.e using --prefix
           or --home).
20050415:  version 0.3
           Added transform_scalar and transform_vector methods for
           interpolating scalar and vector fields to a map projection
           grid.  Added shiftgrid and addcyclic convenience functions.
           Added quiver_demo.py example illustrating how to plot
           wind vectors on a map. Updated examples to use
           transform_scalar instead of calling interp directly.
           Mercator x coordinate units changed from degrees to meters
           setup.py now installs data in python-version-numbered directory.
           (so you can have separate copies for different python versions).
           Fixed aspect ratio of mercator plots.
           Added set_axes_limits,plot,scatter,contourf,contour,
           pcolor and quiver methods.
           axes instance no longer a method argument (API change).
20050410:  version 0.2.1 - add gcpoints and drawgreatcircles methods.
           Added intermediate resolution coastline and political
           boundary databases. Fixed bug in filling continents,
           and another bug in drawing parallels/meridians. Added
           'ireland.py' example.
20050404:  version 0.2 - drawparallels and drawmeridians can now
           draw labels at edge of map.
20050331:  version 0.1.2 - now can handle negative longitudes (patch
           from Michael Brady). basemap.interp can now handle irregular
           (but still rectilinear) lat/lon grids.
20050203:  version 0.1 released on SF.
20050202:  Changed LineCollections.color to set_color in a try/except block.
           (color was a typo in 0.71 and is deprecated).
20050130:  no user visible changes.  Uses new pyrex generated
           C extension interface to proj.4 which is twice as
           fast as the Thuban one.
20050124:  some code reorg, fixed bugs in S. Hem. projections.
           xmin,xmax,ymin,ymax Basemap instance variables renamed
           to llcrnrx,urcrnrx,llcrnry,urcrnry. Added __call__
           and makegrid methods to Basemap class.
20050121:  proj.4 is now called via a C-library interface, instead
           of using the proj command-line tool via os.popen.
20050119:  fixed glitches in drawing of parallels and meridians.
