Initial drop of bin/update-release-info.py.

This program automates the process of inserting the release configuration
information that is currently done by hand.  The configuration data now
all lives in a file, 'ReleaseConfig'.  Change the configuration file, run
the program, and, hey presto, the files are updated.

More work needs to be done; the documentation doesn't quite match with the
program and the regression tests only cover the release flows, but it's
important to get this stuff out before the next release is published so
people can start using it.

1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/template/RELEASE.txt b/template/RELEASE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..17f11ca3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/template/RELEASE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+  A new SCons checkpoint release, 2.0.0.beta.yyyymmdd, is now available
+  on the SCons download page:
+
+          http://www.scons.org/download.php
+
+  XXX The primary purpose of this release ... XXX
+
+  A SCons "checkpoint release" is intended to provide early access to
+  new features so they can be tested in the field before being released
+  for adoption by other software distributions.
+
+  Note that a checkpoint release is developed using the same test-driven
+  development methodology as all SCons releases.  Existing SCons
+  functionality should all work as it does in previous releases (except
+  for any changes identified in the release notes) and early adopters
+  should be able to use a checkpoint release safely for production work
+  with existing SConscript files.  If not, it represents not only a bug
+  in SCons but also a hole in the regression test suite, and we want to
+  hear about it.
+
+  New features may be more lightly tested than in past releases,
+  especially as concerns their interaction with all of the other
+  functionality in SCons.  We are especially interested in hearing bug
+  reports about new functionality.
+
+  We do not recommend that downstream distributions (Debian, Fedora,
+  etc.) package a checkpoint release, mainly to avoid confusing the
+  "public" release numbering with the long checkpoint release names.
+
+  Here is a summary of the changes since 1.3.0:
+
+  NEW FUNCTIONALITY
+
+    - List new features (presumably why a checkpoint is being released)
+
+  DEPRECATED FUNCTIONALITY
+
+    - List anything that's been deprecated since the last release
+
+  CHANGED/ENHANCED EXISTING FUNCTIONALITY
+
+    - List modifications to existing features, where the previous behavior
+      wouldn't actually be considered a bug
+
+  FIXES
+
+    - List fixes of outright bugs
+
+  IMPROVEMENTS
+
+    - List improvements that wouldn't be visible to the user in the
+      documentation:  performance improvements (describe the circumstances
+      under which they would be observed), or major code cleanups
+
+  PACKAGING
+
+    - List changes in the way SCons is packaged and/or released
+
+  DOCUMENTATION
+
+    - List any significant changes to the documentation (not individual
+      typo fixes, even if they're mentioned in src/CHANGES.txt to give
+      the contributor credit)
+
+  DEVELOPMENT
+
+    - List visible changes in the way SCons is developed
+
+  Thanks to CURLY, LARRY, and MOE for their contributions to this release.
+  Contributors are listed alphabetically by their last name.
+
+__COPYRIGHT__
+__FILE__ __REVISION__ __DATE__ __DEVELOPER__