0.18.0 release

[IvanIsCoding]

Target Date

Mid January

Goals

• Ship bug fixes (like the fix for Deleting node breaks JSON roundtrip #1516)
• Ship already merged features (e.g. Matrix Market)
• Support Python 3.14
• Support free-threaded Python
• Include the RustworkX Playground in the documentation to showcase the Pyodide support

PRs left to review

@mtreinish can you take a look at the PRs when you have time? I think this is the optimal order to review them:

1. Remove Python 3.9 support and the legacy retworkx import #1509
2. Officially support Python 3.14 #1521
3. Add interactive playground for users to try rustworkx #1451
4. Migrate from setuptools-rust to maturin #1527
5. Add free-threaded Python to the CI #1528
6. Add Pixi workflow to verify Pyodide build works #1449
7. Add tests for Pyodide build with Pixi and uv #1450

For me I need to review and fix #1517

PRs left to write

1. Add free-threaded Python to cibuildwheel and test it
2. Release PR

Open Question

Should we publish a wheel for windows arm64? It's getting more traction now, NumPy ships a wheel.