upgrading to slink

[Jameson Burt <jameson@mnsinc.com>]

I see no upgrade notes for slink.
For hamm, these upgrade notes reside in 
   .../hamm/hamm/upgrade-i386/README-upgrade
Usually, I just use dpkg to install whatever packages I want from the
upgrade distribution.  For example, I might install a newer gimp from slink.
Since I wouldn't have upgraded the base packages, I learned that using
dpkg prematurely can cause little problems.
Upgrading from rex to bo: I EVENTUALLY HAD TO REINSTALL FROM SCRATCH.
Upgrading from bo to hamm: I EVENTUALLY HAD TO REINSTALL FROM SCRATCH.

Upgrading from hamm to slink: WHAT CAN I EXPECT.
With no instructions, I certainly will not use raw dpkg to add packages
from slink to my current hamm distribution --
unless of course "dependencies" prevent this (do they now?).