release plans and schedule

[Bruno H. <br...@cl...>]

Hi all,

clisp now has much fewer build failures and random crashes that it had a year
ago, and all of the "high-prority" items of my TODO list that I set up in
February 2017 are fixed. Therefore my original plan would have been:

  - fix remaining high-priority issues: bug 718.
  - finish making assembly code portable.
  - Do a final round of testing on all Linux and GNU platforms.

  * PRERELEASE 2.49.70 -> for Debian

  - Do more rounds of testing on other platforms (from macOS to Haiku)

  * RELEASE 2.50 -> for the world

  - All other stuff comes afterwards, like https support, socket fixes,
    warning fixes etc.

Now it seems you (esp. Sam and Jörg) want to hack on something. Especially
during the end-of-December vacations, I guess.

But the timing of these releases is probably something like:

  * 2.49.70: between Dec 20 and Jan 7

  * 2.50: between Jan 25 and Feb 20

Therefore I guess we should at some point create a release branch, so that
you can continue to hack with full speed and at the same time we limit the risk
of breakage just before release. The precise question is WHEN to create
this release branch.

What are your plans for the next few weeks? What would you like to hack on
soon?

Bruno