1.0 alpha 2 release notes

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+================================
+Django 1.0 alpha 2 release notes
+================================
+
+
+Welcome to Django 1.0 alpha 2!
+
+This is the second in a series of preview/development releases leading
+up to the eventual release of Django 1.0, currently scheduled to take
+place in early September 2008. This releases is primarily targeted at
+developers who are interested in testing the Django codebase and
+helping to identify and resolve bugs prior to the final 1.0 release.
+
+As such, this release is *not* intended for production use, and any
+such use is strongly discouraged.
+
+
+What's new in Django 1.0 alpha 2
+================================
+
+Django's development trunk has been the site of nearly constant
+activity over the past year, with several major new features landing
+since the 0.96 release. For features which were new as of Django 1.0
+alpha 1, see `the 1.0 alpha 1 release notes`_. Since the 1.0 alpha 1
+release several new features have landed, including:
+
+``django.contrib.gis`` (`GeoDjango`_)
+    A project over a year in the making, this adds world-class GIS
+    (`Geographic Information Systems`_) support to Django, in the form
+    of a ``contrib`` application.  `Its documentation`_ is currently
+    being maintained externally, and will be merged into the main
+    Django documentation prior to the final 1.0 release. Huge thanks
+    go to Justin Bronn, Jeremy Dunck, Brett Hoerner and Travis Pinney
+    for their efforts in creating and completing this feature.
+
+Pluggable file storage
+    Django's built-in ``FileField`` and ``ImageField`` now can take
+    advantage of pluggable file-storage backends, allowing extensive
+    customization of where and how uploaded files get stored by
+    Django. For details, see `the files documentation`_; big thanks go
+    to Marty Alchin for putting in the hard work to get this
+    completed.
+
+Jython compatibility
+    Thanks to a lot of work from Leo Soto during a Google Summer of
+    Code project, Django's codebase has been refactored to remove
+    incompatibilities with `Jython`_, an implementation of Python
+    written in Java, which runs Python code on the Java Virtual
+    Machine. Django is now compatible with the forthcoming Jython 2.5
+    release.
+
+There are many other new features and improvements in this release,
+including two major performance boosts: strings marked for translation
+using `Django's internationalization system`_ now consume far less
+memory, and Django's internal dispatcher -- which is invoked
+frequently during request/response processing and when working with
+Django's object-relational mapper -- is now significantly faster.
+    
+.. _the 1.0 alpha 1 release notes: ../release_notes_1.0_alpha/
+.. _GeoDjango: http://geodjango.org/
+.. _Geographic Information Systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system
+.. _Its documentation: http://geodjango.org/docs/
+.. _the files documentation: ../files/
+.. _Jython: http://www.jython.org/
+.. _Django's internationalization system: ../i18n/
+
+
+The Django 1.0 roadmap
+======================
+
+One of the primary goals of this alpha release is to focus attention
+on the remaining features to be implemented for Django 1.0, and on the
+bugs that need to be resolved before the final release. Following this
+release, we'll be conducting a series of development sprints building
+up to the beta and release-candidate stages, followed soon after by
+Django 1.0. The timeline is projected to be:
+
+* **August 14, 2008: Django 1.0 beta release.** Past this point Django
+  will be in a "feature freeze" for the 1.0 release; after Django 1.0
+  beta, the development focus will be solely on bug fixes and
+  stabilization.
+
+* August 15, 2008: Sprint (based in Austin, Texas, USA, and online).
+
+* August 17, 2008: Sprint (based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and online).
+
+* **August 21, 2008: Django 1.0 release candidate 1.** At this point,
+  all strings marked for translation within Django's codebase will be
+  frozen, to provide contributors time to check and finalize all of
+  Django's bundled translation files prior to the final 1.0 release.
+
+* August 22, 2008: Sprint (based in Portland, Oregon, USA, and online).
+
+* **August 26, 2008: Django 1.0 release candidate 2.**
+
+* August 30, 2008: Sprint (based in London, England, UK, and online).
+
+* **September 2, 2008: Django 1.0 final release.** The official Django
+  1.0 release party will take place during the first-ever DjangoCon,
+  to be held in Mountain View, California, USA, September 6-7.
+
+Of course, like any estimated timeline, this is subject to change as
+requirements dictate. The latest information will always be available
+on the Django project wiki:
+
+    http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/VersionOneRoadmap
+
+
+What you can do to help
+=======================
+
+In order to provide a high-quality 1.0 release, we need your
+help. Although this alpha release is, again, *not* intended for
+production use, you can help the Django team by trying out the alpha
+codebase in a safe test environment and reporting any bugs or issues
+you encounter. The Django ticket tracker is the central place to
+search for open issues:
+
+    http://code.djangoproject.com/timeline
+
+Please open new tickets if no existing ticket corresponds to a problem
+you're running into.
+
+Additionally, discussion of Django development, including progress
+toward the 1.0 release, takes place daily on the django-developers
+mailing list:
+
+    http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers
+
+...and in the ``#django-dev`` IRC channel on ``irc.freenode.net``. If
+you're interested in helping out with Django's development, feel free
+to join the discussions there.
+
+Django's online documentation also includes pointers on how to
+contribute to Django:
+
+    http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/contributing/
+
+Contributions on any level -- developing code, writing
+documentation or simply triaging tickets and helping to test proposed
+bugfixes -- are always welcome and appreciated.