docs(changes): prepare 4.0.0 stable (#2378)

* docs(4.0.0): write a paragraph on community contributions

* docs(changes): prepare 4.0.0 stable

docs/changes/4.0.0.rst

@@ -4,29 +4,45 @@ Changelog for Falcon 4.0.0
 Summary
 -------
 
-The first release candidate of Falcon 4.0 is here!
-
-As Falcon 4.0 is now nearing a stable release, in preparation for this
-milestone, we would really be thankful if you could test this release candidate
-with your apps, and :ref:`let us know if you run into any issues <chat>`!
-Please also check the list of **breaking changes** below.
-
-If you make use of type annotations in your Falcon app, please run your type
-checker of choice without any *typeshed* extensions for Falcon, and
-:ref:`report back to us <chat>` how it went!
-
-As always, you can grab the new release
-`from PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/falcon/4.0.0rc1/>`__::
-
-    pip install falcon==4.0.0rc1
-
-(Alternatively, continue reading these docs for more
-:ref:`installation options <install>`.)
-
-This release would have not been possible without contributions from the
-fantastic group of 30 community members and maintainers.
-
-Thank You!
+We are happy to present Falcon 4.0, a new major version of the framework that
+brings a couple of commonly requested features including support for matching
+multiple path segments (using :class:`~falcon.routing.PathConverter`), and
+a fully typed codebase. (Please read more about typing in the notes below.)
+
+The timeframe for Falcon 4.0 was challenging due to the need to balance our
+high standards with the CPython 3.13 timeline. We aimed to deliver the main
+development branch in this release, without resorting to another compatibility
+micro update (as we did with Falcon 3.1.1-3.1.3). Following community feedback,
+we also want to improve our overall release schedule by shipping smaller
+increments more often.
+To support this goal, we have made several tooling and testing improvements:
+the build process for :ref:`binary wheels <binary_wheels>` has been simplified
+using `cibuildwheel <https://cibuildwheel.pypa.io/>`__, and our test suite now
+only requires ``pytest`` as a hard dependency. Additionally, you can run
+``pytest`` against our tests from any directory. We hope that these changes
+should also benefit packaging Falcon in Linux distributions.
+
+As with every SemVer major release, we have removed a number of previously
+deprecated functions, classes, compatibility shims, as well as made other
+potentially breaking changes that we could not risk in a minor version.
+If you have been paying attention the deprecation warnings from the 3.x series,
+the impact should be minimal, but please do take a look at the list of breaking
+changes below.
+
+This release would not have been possible without the numerous contributions
+from our community. This release alone comprises a number of pull requests
+submitted by a group of 30 talented individuals. What is more, we were
+particularly impressed by the high-quality discussions and code submissions
+during our
+`EuroPython 2024 Sprint <https://ep2024.europython.eu/sprints#the-falcon-web-framework>`__.
+Some notable sprint contributions include CHIPS support, and a new
+:ref:`WebSocket Tutorial <tutorial-ws>`, among others.
+In fact, according to the
+`statistics on GitHub <https://github.com/falconry/falcon/graphs/contributors>`__,
+we are thrilled to report that the total number of Falcon
+contributors has now exceeded 200. We find it fascinating that our framework
+has become a collaborative effort involving so many individuals, and would like
+to thank everyone who has made this release possible!
 
 
 Changes to Supported Platforms
@@ -42,7 +58,8 @@ Changes to Supported Platforms
   (`#2074 <https://github.com/falconry/falcon/pull/2074>`__,
   `#2273 <https://github.com/falconry/falcon/pull/2273>`__)
 - End-of-life Python 3.8 is no longer actively supported, but
-  the framework should still continue to install from source and function.
+  the framework should still continue to install from the pure-Python wheel or
+  source distribution, and function normally.
 - The Falcon 4.x series is guaranteed to support CPython 3.10 and
   PyPy3.10 (v7.3.16).
   This means that we may drop the support for Python 3.8 & 3.9 altogether in a

docs/user/install.rst

@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ Binary Wheels
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 Binary Falcon wheels are automatically built for many CPython platforms,
-courtesy of `cibuildwheel <https://cibuildwheel.pypa.io/en/stable/>`__.
+courtesy of `cibuildwheel <https://cibuildwheel.pypa.io/>`__.
 
 .. wheels:: .github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yaml
 

falcon/version.py

@@ -14,5 +14,5 @@
 
 """Falcon version."""
 
-__version__ = '4.0.0rc1'
+__version__ = '4.0.0'
 """Current version of Falcon."""