Time to branch off 4.0 from 4.1?

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

Hello, everyone,

I sense some of us are already champing at the bit to get off with
integrating tons of new features into 4.1, once it's started.  In-flow of
new bugs also seems pretty much within expectations for a stable release
by now, so it seems time to move on.  Thus I'm prepared to tag and branch
any time now, but I'ld like some things cleared up first:

*) If we move towards ANSI-C function definitions, I think that should be
done *before* we split off a 4.0 branch, to reduce "patch distance"  
between the two branches.  I'm in favour of doing that, with a tag 4.0.1
before we start it, and another tag (4.0.2) right afterwards.  4.0.2 would
become the branch-off point for the 4.0-release branch.

*) K&R incompatibilities.  Mainly the use of 'char' in some function's
parameter lists, most prominently in the terminal API.  Currently we're
neither fully compatible with K&R, nor with ANSI-C.  I suggest we fix
towards K&R C after the split, and only on the 4.0 branch.  The 4.1 stem
would be moved towards ANSI/ISO C instead.  We will have to burn the
bridges to K&R C at some point, and this feels as good a time as any.  
The only viable alternative to this approach I see right now would be to
step onto a soapbox and declare 3.7.3 as the last version actually
compilable on K&R compilers, and that's that.

*) Some currently open bugs that need fixing.  I won't even try to comment
on the recurring mouse interaction timing/concurrency problems on various
platforms.  But the yrange flip needs to be fixed, and the EMF terminal
output has to be made compatible with Windows 2K and XP (note: I suspect
any dependence on _Office_ version numbers is a red herring) --- it's
essentially unusable right now.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.