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diff --git a/admin/notes/BRANCH b/admin/notes/BRANCH
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+This file describes the CVS branch in which it is maintained.
+Everything below the line is branch-specific.
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This is the "HEAD" branch, otherwise known as the "trunk".  Its primary
+purpose is to accumulate changes that are not yet partitioned into a
+specific (versioned) release.  When people say "use CVS emacs", this is
+the branch they are talking about.  Likewise, a "cvs checkout" without
+the "-r" option results in this branch.
+
+The plans for this branch are not specified; Emacs hackers add to it
+relatively free of constraint (aside from proper legal / accounting
+practices), although sometimes there is related discussion on the
+emacs-devel mailing list.
+
+The closure process for this branch is undocumented; concepts such as
+"freeze", "release", or "integration with the trunk" are not applicable
+to this branch.
diff --git a/admin/notes/exit-value b/admin/notes/exit-value
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+ttn 2004-05-09
+
+The exit value of a program returning to the shell on unixoid systems is
+typically 0 for success, and non-0 (such as 1) for failure.  For vms it is
+odd (1,3,5...) for success, even (0,2,4...) for failure.
+
+This holds from the point of view of the "shell" (in quotes because vms has a
+different dispatch model that is not explained further here).
+
+From the point of view of the program, nowadays stdlib.h on both type of
+systems provides macros `EXIT_SUCCESS' and `EXIT_FAILURE' that should DTRT.
+
+NB: The numerical values of these macros DO NOT need to fulfill the the exit
+value requirements outlined in the first paragraph!  That is the job of the
+`exit' function.  Thus, this kind of construct shows misunderstanding:
+
+   #ifdef VMS
+      exit (1);
+   #else
+      exit (0);
+   #endif
+
+Values aside from EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE are tricky.
+
+
+
+ttn 2004-05-12
+
+Values aside from EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE can be used to indicate
+finer gradations of failure.  If this is the only information available
+to the caller, clamping such values to EXIT_FAILURE loses information.
+If there are other ways to indicate the problem to the caller (such as
+a message to stderr) it may be ok to clamp.  In all cases, it is the
+relationship between the program and its caller that must be examined.
+[Insert ZAMM quote here.]