1. Wiki pages need to be maintained - especially for stuff that changes a lot, entering dates is not perfect. Mostly it helps clicking on stuff and see what dates it will report.
2. my build has the following note: "Automatically updated on changes to SVN." - so that should have given a clue.
3. rxxxx is the revision number of the code in SVN. Each time a dev commits new code, the revision number increases. Currently it's revision 3901. look at https://sourceforge.net/p/dosbox/code-0/3901/log/?path= to learn what the revisions changed.
But also, as I mentioned before, even if I do find the latest SVN build, I don't know what I'm getting with "rXXXX". The build might crash on launch, or even have some known (to the devs) issue where it deletes files. I have no idea what the status is.
Just get the newest revision you can find. In your case, grab my built. In Windows users case, grab the emucr one.
So far, I know of no revision that crashes on launch or deletes files.
So that brings me back to my point -- I'm looking for an official release / wondering if there's anything I can do to help get one out the door.
It will be done when it's done. Except from testing current SVN and reporting problems you find, there is nothing you can do. Ideally, since you are a developer yourself, built your own version, so you can quickly test fixes to SVN or patches yourself instead of waiting for me to do a new built (my builts are mostly automated via AppleScript but my machine needs to run and sometimes my SVN copy is messed up).
It almost never helps bugging developers about new versions.