- introducing the first version of the REST API; INSTALLATION
instructions will be modified to discuss and provide references
for proper, highly-available deployment of the REST API, which
it is advised be run on separate servers.
- The API is powered by [FastAPI](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/);
detailed instructions regarding API deployment may be found in
its documentation, including how to use a reverse proxy such as
**nginx** to provide SSL.
- Database access for the API is performed using
[SQLAlchemy](https://www.sqlalchemy.org/), and in future
releases, all database accesses will be converted to using it,
for the sake of consistency and to eliminate the needless
dependency on the MariaDB client software.
- PyPI package now provides the `[API]` extras definition, to
install API prerequisites (which are not otherwise needed)
- CHANGELOG adapted to be Markdown-compatible