Hello, devel list! :) Due to travel and other factors, it has been about a month since our last unstable release. There are some really exciting, big patches coming down the pipe, so I wanted to roll this interim release so contributed module developers interested in chasing HEAD have something a bit more current to build from. See http://drupal.org/node/224333#UNSTABLE-3 for the full list of API changes this release. Here are some of the things we've been up to for the last month. Once again, I encourage contributors to use http://groups.drupal.org/patch-spotlight as a place to organize, prioritize, and coordinate on patches they'd like to see in Drupal 7. For developers: =============== - drupal_set_title() now check_plain()s by default, which should help developers prevent XSS. - Performance improvements: the registry now keeps a record of all modules that implement a given hook, and caches registry lookups. - Taxonomy gets some love, with new hook_taxonomy_term_load/insert/update/delete() hooks and various standardization/consistency improvements. - SimpleTest now remembers the tests that were last selected so they can be re-run (WOOHOO) and can catch errors and warnings that come up during test runs, even if they're not part of an actual assertion. - Improvements to drupal_add_js(), which now has some cleaned-up parameters and a full-on weighting system for scripts. More drupal_add_js() improvements are in the pipeline, and expect them to make it over to drupal_add_css() as well. - Ground work has been laid in the database system for supporting of more exotic database drivers. Expect to see SQLite support in UNSTABLE-4! - Also on the database side of things, numerous files and modules have been converted from legacy syntax to the new DBTNG syntax. A great place to help out if you're interested in learning this stuff hands-on in advance of when you are forced to. ;) For users: ========== - New, swanky password checker during installation and on the my account page. - Cron is automatically run once upon installation so that Drupal doesn't immediately clobber you with a nasty error as a way of saying "Welcome." - The content types administration screen shrinks down the "in-your-face-ness" of the machine name of the type. - It is now possible (though not easy ;)) to upgrade from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7! Unfortunately, this currently still requires some manual futzing with settings.php. See http://drupal.org/node/304163 if you'd like to help. Looking forward to your patches/reviews in the issue queue! :) -Angie -- Join us at Do It With Drupal! A large scale, curated education event December 10-12, New Orleans http://www.doitwithdrupal.com