- Patch #24141: fix XML UTF-8 bom issue with PHP5.
    Workaround for the fact that PHP5 cannot parse UTF-8 encoded XML feeds
    that start with the so-called "byte order mark".

- Code cleanup: improve format_plural usage, add some missing placeholder/check calls, and introduce API for <link> tags.

  a valid UTF-8 string, beginning and ending on a character boundary.

- Fix bug in decode_entities() with double-escaped entities.

- Patch #18828 by me, jbond and TDobes: moves the textarea hook for 'pre' between the title and the textarea. This makes it easier for simply textarea enhancements like quicktags to add a toolbar just above the textarea.

- Patch #19590 by Moshe: lazy initialization of the theme system.  Improves
  performance of pages that don't need the theme system (such as RSS feeds)
  and makes it easier to set a custom theme.

- Patch #19212 by chx: removed unused variables, and fixed the error reporting
  in form_file().

- Patch #18437 by Mathias: Drupal doesn't allow URL aliases that map to Userland Manila posts since they usually contain the '$' and are considered an invalid URL. This patch allows '$' in an URL and thus an alias.  It also resolves a disparity between the 'allowable characters' of absolute and relative URLs. As far as I can tell, those parts of the regexp should be the same.

- Ignore PHP5's strict warnings for now.  The real solution is to rewrite both xmlrpc.inc and xtemplate.inc.

- Patch #16246 by Moshe: added mechanism to direct the user back to the referring page after completing a form.
  (Moshe: the patch against node.module failed to apply.)

- Patch #16358 by James: added toolkit to enable better image handling.  The avatar code and the upload module have been updated to take advantage of the new image API.

There are 5 main functions that modules may now utilize to handle images:

* image_get_info() - this function checks a file.  If it exists and is a valid image file, it will return an array containing things like the pixel dimensions of the image, plus the 'type' and common extension.
* image_scale - resizes a given image to fit within a given width / height dimensions, while maintaining aspect ratio (not distorting the image).  This function can be used to generate thumbnails, or ensure a maximum resolution, etc.
* image_resize - similar to image_scale (but will not respect aspect ratio - may well distort the image).
* image_rotate - rotate an image by X degrees
* image_crop - crops an image to a given rectangle (defined as top-left x/y coordinates plus a width & height of the rectangle).

Contribution modules will now be able to rely on these base manipulation functions to offer additional functionality (such as image nodes, photo galleries, advanced image manipulation, etc).

- Patch #16513 by James (slightly modified): export categories and enclosures to RSS feeds (and made RSS feeds extensible).

  NOTE: this needs to be documented.

- Fixed PHP5 warning: the $result object in drupal_http_request() needed to be properly initialized using 'new StdClass'.

  (I just installed PHP 5.0.3, no less.  Why don't you?)

- Watchdog improvement: added a 'view' link for 'access denied' messages.

  We added a 'severity' column to watchdog():
    watchdog($type, $message, $link) --> watchdog($type, $message, $severity, $link);

    * Specify a severity in case you are reporting a warning or error.
    * The $link-parameter is now the fourth parameter instead of the third.

  TODO: document this in the upgrade guide.

- Patch #13020 by chx: let Drupal handle multiple database layers.

- Removed the PEAR database backend.  It's no longer being used/maintained.