1. With all the new features added to XOOPS over the past several months, we felt compelled to revise the version number to RC4.0 from 3.1

2. A significant architectural change due to the inclusion of the Smarty Templating System within the core product

3. An updated blocks system that works better with the Smarty Templating System
- You can select which page a block should be displayed on now
- Any block contents can be cached by Smarty with settable caching expirations
- Selectable block templates when adding new blocks
- Create any number of copies of a block

4. A new debugging system has been implemented

5. Image Manager - This will allow you to upload images for inclusion in news articles, forum posts, etc. This module will also help in organizing images through categorization features.

6. A few modules have been removed from the core package (Visitors2, Quotes, Epehemrides)

7. The Whosonline module will be replace with a "lighter" blocks version

8. A new headlines module will be added to the core with RSS 2.0 support and template files

9. Configuration options will now be stored in the DB eliminating the need for cache files and directories

10. Automation of module configuration
- The system will automatically generate a configuration form based on the contents of xoops_version.php

11. Old themes will continue to work with XOOPS and non-Smarty modules

12. Fully redesigned core class files structure utilizing design patterns

13. Faq, forums, links, and downloads modules are now converted to utilize the Smarty Templating system. This will allow designers and/or site admins to completely change the appearance of these modules.

That's all we have now and we hope this will give you a basic idea of what the next version will look like.

Regards,
XOOPS Team