Requests for comment/Extension release management

Problems to solve

 * 1) Extensions authors have no real way to specify "releases" according to their own development schedule
 * 2) There is no way to track if version X of an extension works with version Y of MediaWiki
 * 3) Extensions not in subversion (eg: pasted into the wiki) tend to be not well supported and contain security risks

Requirements

 * Must be deployed on MediaWiki.org
 * Track releases of MediaWiki core - release dates, EOL dates, branch points paths to branches/tags, etc.
 * Track releases of Extensions - same deal
 * Track compatibility of released extensions with core MediaWiki releases
 * Provide this information via special pages and the API
 * Extension pages can ONLY exist (excluding subpages) if an extension has been defined in the database, a path to the repo given, and author(s) defined [problem 3]

Nice to have

 * Fold ExtensionDistributor functionality into this, since we're tracking release information
 * Make infoboxes on Extension: pages auto-populated with release information, authors, etc.

User interface

 * Special:ExtensionManagement - Would allow for creating new extensions, assigning
 * Special:ExtensionInfo - Provide information about a given extension, release dates, compatibility, path to download, etc.
 * API modules providing the same information