NEWS: tidy up a little bit, reprioritize some items, hide some non-user-visible items

NEWS.rst

@@ -12,21 +12,22 @@ Alpha 2 preview
 New Features
 ''''''''''''
 
-- The most significant new feature in this release is MDMF, which stands
-  for "Medium Density Mutable Files". These are capable of providing more
-  efficient access and update of parts of a file. To ensure compatibility
-  with previous versions, MDMF is not yet the default format for mutable
-  files. Memory usage of a gateway when uploading and downloading MDMF
-  files may be higher than expected in this release. (`#393`_, `#1507`_)
+- The most significant new feature in this release is MDMF: "Medium-size
+  Distributed Mutable Files". Unlike standard SDMF files, these provide
+  efficient partial-access (reading and modifying small portions of the file
+  instead of the whole thing). MDMF is opt-in (it is not yet the default
+  format for mutable files), both to ensure compatibility with previous
+  versions, and because the algorithm does not yet meet memory-usage goals.
+  (`#393`_, `#1507`_)
+- A "blacklist" feature allows blocking access to specific files through
+  a particular gateway. See the "Access Blacklist" section of
+  `<docs/configuration.rst>`_ for more details. (`#1425`_)
 - A "drop-upload" feature has been added, which allows you to upload
   files to a Tahoe-LAFS directory just by writing them to a local
   directory. This feature is experimental and should not be relied on
   to store the only copy of valuable data. It is currently available
   only on Linux. See `<docs/frontends/drop-upload.rst>`_ for documentation.
   (`#1429`_)
-- A "blacklist" feature allows blocking access to specific files through
-  a particular gateway. See the "Access Blacklist" section of
-  `<docs/configuration.rst>`_ for more details. (`#1425`_)
 - The timeline of immutable downloads can be viewed using a zoomable and
   pannable JavaScript-based visualization. This is accessed using the
   'timeline' link on the File Download Status page for the download, which
@@ -38,12 +39,12 @@ Configuration/Behavior Changes
 - Prior to Tahoe-LAFS v1.3, the configuration of some node options could
   be specified using individual config files rather than via ``tahoe.cfg``.
   These files now cause an error if present. (`#1385`_)
-- Storage servers now calculate their remaining space based on the
-  filesystem containing the storage/shares/ directory. Previously they
-  looked at the filesystem containing the storage/ directory. This allows
-  storage/shares/, rather than storage/, to be a mount point or a symlink
-  pointing to another filesystem. (`#1384`_)
-- 'tahoe cp xyz MUTABLE' will modify the existing mutable file instead of
+- Storage servers now calculate their remaining space based on the filesystem
+  containing the ``storage/shares/`` directory. Previously they looked at the
+  filesystem containing the ``storage/`` directory. This allows
+  ``storage/shares/``, rather than ``storage/``, to be a mount point or a
+  symlink pointing to another filesystem. (`#1384`_)
+- ``tahoe cp xyz MUTABLE`` will modify the existing mutable file instead of
   creating a new one. (`#1304`_)
 - The button for unlinking a file from its directory on a WUI directory
   listing is now labelled "unlink" rather than "del". (`#1104`_)
@@ -54,12 +55,12 @@ Notable Bugfixes
 - The security bugfix for the vulnerability allowing deletion of shares,
   detailed in the news for v1.8.3 below, is also included in this
   release. (`#1528`_)
-- Some cases of immutable upload, for example using the 'tahoe put' and
-  'tahoe cp' commands or SFTP, did not appear in the history of Recent
+- Some cases of immutable upload, for example using the ``tahoe put`` and
+  ``tahoe cp`` commands or SFTP, did not appear in the history of Recent
   Uploads and Downloads. (`#1079`_)
 - The memory footprint of the verifier has been reduced by serializing
   block fetches. (`#1395`_)
-- Large immutable downloads are now a little faster than in v1.8.2 (about
+- Large immutable downloads are now a little faster than in v1.8.3 (about
   5% on a fast network). (`#1268`_)
 
 Packaging Changes
@@ -69,11 +70,12 @@ Packaging Changes
   source tree, since they are now maintained as part of the official
   Debian packages. (`#1454`_)
 - The unmaintained FUSE plugins were removed from the source tree. See
-  docs/frontends/FTP-and-SFTP.rst for how to mount a Tahoe filesystem on
+  ``docs/frontends/FTP-and-SFTP.rst`` for how to mount a Tahoe filesystem on
   Unix via sshfs. (`#1409`_)
 - The Tahoe licenses now give explicit permission to combine Tahoe-LAFS
   with code distributed under the following additional open-source licenses
   (any version of each):
+
   * Academic Free License
   * Apple Public Source License
   * BitTorrent Open Source License
@@ -88,33 +90,27 @@ Packaging Changes
 Compatibility and Dependencies
 ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
 
-- An incompatibility of zope.interface versions 3.6.4 and 3.6.5 with Nevow
-  has been resolved. Tahoe-LAFS now requires an earlier or later version
-  of zope.interface. (`#1435`_)
-- The Twisted dependency has been raised to version 10.1. This ensures
-  that we no longer require pywin32 on Windows, that the new drop-upload
-  feature has the required support from Twisted on Linux, and that it is
-  never necessary to patch Twisted in order to use the FTP frontend.
-  (`#1274`_, `#1429`_, `#1438`_)
+- To resolve an incompatibility between Nevow and zope.interface (versions
+  3.6.3 and 3.6.4), Tahoe-LAFS now requires an earlier or later
+  version of zope.interface. (`#1435`_)
+- The Twisted dependency has been raised to version 10.1 to ensure we no
+  longer require pywin32 on Windows, the new drop-upload feature has the
+  required support from Twisted on Linux, and that it is never necessary to
+  patch Twisted in order to use the FTP frontend. (`#1274`_, `#1429`_,
+  `#1438`_)
 - An explicit dependency on pyOpenSSL has been added, replacing the indirect
   dependency via the "secure_connections" option of foolscap. (`#1383`_)
 
 Minor Changes
 '''''''''''''
 
-- When the '--version' or '--version-and-path' options to 'tahoe' were
-  used and the version of a dependency could not be parsed, an unhelpful
-  error message would be given. (`#1355`_, `#1388`_)
-- The tahoe_files munin plugin reported an incorrect count of the number of
-  share files. (`#1391`_)
-- A ``man`` page has been added. (`#1420`_)
-- Nodes now emit "None" for percentiles with higher implied precision
-  than the number of observations can support. Older stats gatherers
-  will throw an exception if they gather stats from a new storage server
-  and it sends a "None" for a percentile. (`#1392`_)
+- A ``man`` page has been added (`#1420`_). All other docs are in ReST
+  format.
+- The ``tahoe_files`` munin plugin reported an incorrect count of the number
+  of share files. (`#1391`_)
 - Minor documentation updates: #627, #1104, #1225, #1297, #1342, #1404
-- Other minor changes: #636, #1366, #1412, #1344, #1347, #1359, #1389, #1441,
-  #1474, #1503, #1507
+- Other minor changes: #636, #1355, #1363, #1366, #1388, #1392, #1412, #1344,
+  #1347, #1359, #1389, #1441, #1442, #1446, #1474, #1503
 
 .. _`#393`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/393
 .. _`#1079`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1079