[development] docs for new release system

[Derek Wright]

hi folks,

i know the documentation team is totally understaffed and overworked,  
so feel free to ignore this request. ;)  also, i'm cross-posting to  
the devel list since i know many people there care about the new  
release system but probably aren't subscribed to the documentation  
list, and maybe someone from devel-land wants to help...

the new release system is now mostly blocked on documentation.  i'm  
not really going to have a chance to work on it for at least a few  
days, and i do have a few hours of code cleanup to do, too.  if  
anyone here wants to help, i'd be *very* grateful if someone wanted  
to contribute by doing a first draft of any of the below docs.

most of the info you need is already here:

http://drupal.org/node/90436

additional text could be lifted from the handout i gave at drupalcon:

http://drupal.org/files/new_release.pdf

(though, a few of the details in the handout are now outdated, and  
the info in #90436 should be used whenever the 2 conflict).

mostly, we just need someone to split up this existing text and put  
it into a form more easily digested by the various kinds of people  
interacting with the new system.  i see the need for a few different  
kinds of docs:

1) docs for project maintainers on how to use the new system

1a) what tags and branches should be created in the CVS repo:
   - a subpage of http://drupal.org/node/22288 (probably as a re- 
write of http://drupal.org/node/17570) ?
   - re-write/update of http://drupal.org/node/1002 ?

1b) how to make release nodes:
   - new page, probably a subpage of http://drupal.org/node/7765 ?
   - perhaps as a re-write of http://drupal.org/node/22571 ?


2) docs for drupal users to understand the new version numbering  
scheme for contrib
  - rewrite of the section of http://drupal.org/handbook/version-info  
on contrib modules


3) very short front-page story node announcing when the system goes  
live that points to the other new/updated docs.


bert boerland volunteered to try to make some charts/graphs relating  
to the new system.  for example, perhaps a flow-chart of how a  
release goes from code in a developer's head or patches in the issue  
queue into the repo, how it gets tagged, turned into a release, and  
eventually deployed on someone's production site... (i guess, the  
exact diagrams are up to him).  i'm not sure what images he'll  
create, or what the best location for them will be, but the flowchart  
idea would probably work nicely to supplement 1b in my list above.   
if anyone else is inspired to make pretty pictures about any of this,  
i'd be thrilled to review drafts of any images folks want to  
generate.  my goal is for the UI to be self-explanatory, but if  
someone thought annotated screenshots would be helpful of the release  
node add form, that's another possibility...

if there are any volunteers for any of this, please let me know.

thanks!
-derek

p.s. [doc list only]: should i have just created this as an issue (or  
set of issues) in the documentation queue?  i'm new to the doc list  
and don't have a good sense of the process and etiquette, yet.