introduce docs/changelog.md (#1221)

* introduce docs/changelog.md
* populate changelog from #1211

Co-authored-by: Pramod Kumbhar <[email protected]>

README.md

@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ For detailed installation instructions see [docs/install/install_instructions.md
 * See [docs/README.md](docs/README.md) for developers documentation
 * See [http://neuronsimulator.github.io/nrn/](http://neuronsimulator.github.io/nrn/) for latest, nightly snapshot
 
+## Changelog
+
+Refer to [docs/changelog.md](docs/changelog.md)
+
 ## Contributing to NEURON development
 
 Refer to [NEURON contribution guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)

docs/changelog.md

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+# 8.0.0
+
+_Release Date_ : 30-04-2021
+
+
+## What's New
+
+- Dynamic selection of legacy vs modern units using HOC/Python API (**default** : modern)
+- Faster reaction-diffusion support
+- Initial GPU support using integration of CoreNEURON
+- Binary installer for new Apple M1 platform
+- Binary wheel distribution for Python 3.9 and Python 2.7
+- Release of NMODL version 0.3 (available as python wheel)
+- Versioned documentation available via [nrn.readthedocs.io](https://nrn.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
+- CMake as a primary build system for NEURON and Interviews
+
+
+## Breaking Changes
+- `h.Section` now interprets positional arguments as `name`, `cell`. Previously positional arguments were interpreted in the other order. (Calling it with keyword arguments is unchanged.)
+-  For 3d reaction-diffusion simulations, the voxelization and segment mapping algorithms have been adjusted, especially around the soma. Voxel indices and sometimes counts will change from previous versions.
+
+## Deprecations
+- Five functions in the `neuron` module: `neuron.init`, `neuron.run`, `neuron.psection`, `neuron.xopen`, and `neuron.quit`. 
+- Autotools build is deprecated and will be removed in the next release. Use CMake instead.
+- Python 2 and Python 3.5 support  is deprecated and will be removed in the next release. Use `Python >= 3.6`
+
+## Bug Fixes
+
+For the complete list of bug fixes, see the list on the [GitHub here](https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/issues/1211#issuecomment-826919173).
+
+## Improvements /  Other Changes
+- Allow for two point (single section) SWC somas 
+- GitHub Actions and Azure as primary CI systems. Travis CI removed.
+- GitHub [Releases](https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/releases) provides full source tarballs, binary installers and python wheels.
+- Improved testing and CI infrastructure including GPUs
+- [nrn-build-ci](https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn-build-ci) repository test nightly builds for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Fedora 32, Fedora 33, CentOS7, CentOS8, Debian Buster (10) and macOS 10.15 platforms.
+- Improved integration of CoreNEURON
+- Support for recent numpy version
+- Various build improvements on Linux, MacOS and HPC platforms
+- Documentation from various repositories is consolidated under `nrn` repository 
+- New releases via Spack and Easybuild package managers 
+- Fix deadlock when compiling NEURON with AVX-512
+- Add backward-cpp for better backtraces
+- NEURON_MODULE_OPTIONS environment variable to pass in nrniv options before `neuron import` 
+
+## Upgrade Steps
+
+Existing models should work without any changes.  In order to upgrade NEURON version you can:
+- Use python wheels provided for Linux or Mac OS platform
+- Use binary installer provided for windows
+- Install from source, preferably using CMake build system 
+- For new version, it's always a good idea to start over from scratch with nrnivmodl (deleting existing directory like `x86_64`)
+
+See `Installation` section under [nrn.readthedocs.io/](nrn.readthedocs.io/). In the very rare case that numerical differences exist, check selection of legacy vs modern units.
+
+## Contributors
+
+See the list of contributors on respective GitHub projects:
+- NEURON : https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/graphs/contributors
+- CoreNEURON : https://github.com/BlueBrain/CoreNeuron/graphs/contributors
+- NMODL : https://github.com/BlueBrain/nmodl/graphs/contributors
+
+## Feedback / Help
+
+- Software related issues should be reported on the GitHub : https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/issues/new/choose
+- For developing models and any scientific questions, see NEURON forum : https://www.neuron.yale.edu/phpBB/
+- If you want to participate / contribute to the development of NEURON, you can join monthly developers meeting : https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/wiki

docs/index.rst

@@ -29,7 +29,13 @@ Welcome to NEURON's documentation!
    scm/index
    dev/index
    doxygen
-
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 1
+   :caption: Changelog
+
+   changelog.md
+
 Indices and tables
 ==================