As a maintainer of Wikibase instance I want to know what changes are expected in the new version of the software, so that I could prepare my instance and its users if necessary.
As a developer of a tool based on Wikibase software I want to know what changes are expected in the new version of the software, so that I know how to adjust my software.
Previous work:
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | Spike | None | T352252 Design and implement CHANGELOGs | ||
| Open | None | T272472 Create Release Notes document(s) for relevant components of Wikibase software suite |
Just thought it was worth chiming in, since the description (as I read it) does not encompass all the ways I use release notes, and this might lead to relevant information not being included:
As a maintainer, I also want to know what's in a version so I can decide whether it's right to upgrade at all - or, if I'm installing it initially, which version to install. With respect to WB 1.35 vs. 1.36, I must consider whether it's worth foregoing benefits of using LTS (inc. MW LTS being a Debian package). Both the presence of and limits to security (T129323#4593483) and feature backporting (T274664) - i.e. what is/isn't in the LTS branch - should be clear, to aid such decisions. [I appreciate it probably isn't possible to say "X is expected to be in 1.37, but 1.35.x won't get it." in the release notes for 1.36.]
It's especially important that users unfamiliar with MediaWiki's release cadence have the info to make a correct decision; they may hop onto 1.36 and update DB, not realizing it means having to update to 1.37 in half a year, or else lose security support - a year before they would've if they'd kept on LTS. (Some on Telegram aren't even fully aware that Wikibase is based on MediaWiki, at least to start with.)
Release notes may not be the best place for an overview of "feature X is in REL1_36 but not REL1_35", but feature and lifecycle info should be somewhere - perhaps the Wikibase or Repo/Client pages? Extensions which use release branches often freeze them to the features available at the time; since this doesn't seem to be what you're doing (in this case? for 1.37/1.38 too?), it'd be worth noting there.