The version of the manual that's in the docs branch is good enough to release. For those who would like a look, but aren't interested in building it themselves, the current draft is on the web site at:
http://common-lisp.net/project/asdf/draft-asdf-manual.pdf
or you can navigate to it from the ASDF homepage.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you have a few cycles, I would be very grateful to anyone who would review the manual and send me suggestions or repairs. [If you want to submit patches, use the 'docs' topic branch.]
I'm going to set up another test machine and do some hard-core testing this week, but after that we should release.
That means testing the latest version of ASDF against your systems -- especially "dark" systems that aren't in Quicklisp or are for local use only -- would be A Great Thing.
Best to all...