README for the fonts/utilities/fontinst-prerelease subtree of CTAN:

The fontinst-prerelase directory and its subdirectories are primarily
of interest to experienced fontinst users who wish to help with the
beta testing of the next version of fontinst. The *current* version
of fontinst can be found in the fontinst directory (which resides in
the same directory as fontinst-prerelease) and its subdirectories.

Some of the files in the fontinst-prerelease subtree have been updated
while others are mere copies of the same files in the current version.
The files should however constitute a working fontinst system. In case
they don't, please report this to the fontinst mailing list.

Those files that have been updated are listed in the files
  manifest.txt   (raw ASCII version) and
  manifest.tex   (LaTeX document).
The document manifest.tex also contains short descriptions of the files.

At the time of writing, the documentation has not been updated. The
best source for information about the new features added and the
changes made to old is the documented source itself, which now contain
much more comments than it used to. Typesetting source/fisource.tex will
get you the documented source of the entire program.

Further updates will be announced on the fontinst mailing list. The
address of that list is
   fontinst@cogs.susx.ac.uk
Subscription requests should be directed to
   fontinst-request@cogs.susx.ac.uk


For the fontinst maintenance team,
Lars Hellstr\"om,
November 15, 1999.