[TCLCORE] Tcl/Tk 8.6.* release plans

[Donald G P. <don...@ni...>]

The next 8.6 releases of Tcl/Tk will be version 8.6.17.  Following the
plan in TIP 713, the releases of Tcl 8.6.17 and Tk 8.6.17 should take
place in August, next month.  In order to accomplish that plan, I will
open release branches core-8-6-17-rc in both repositories on August 1,
branching off the current state of the core-8-6-branch at that time.

Any pending bug fixes that are desired to be in the Tcl/Tk 8.6.17 releases
should be committed to the core-8-6-branch before August 1.

Tcl/Tk 8.6.* releases are far more infrequent now, and they are aimed
toward bringing Tcl/Tk 8.* development to an end.  The TIP 713 plan calls
for one release per year, with only releases 8.6.17 and 8.6.18 remaining.
Emergencies or compelling need might overrule the plan, but until they
arise, we should expect the TIP 713 plan to be carried out.

In that environment, it is even more important to avoid regressions in
our patch releases.  I ask contributors of bug fixes meant to go into
8.6.* releases to temper their ambitions.  This is no longer the moment
for major architecture revisions on a soon to be dormant code base.  I
also call on folks with an interest in the quality of the remaining
Tcl/Tk 8.6.* releases to play their role in reviewing and testing those
bug fixes that do get committed to help us detect regressions early
and fully.  We don't have a next release coming right up to repair any
errors.

Thanks to all the hands out there who assist with getting the best
Tcl/Tk out to the world that we can achieve.

-- 
| Don Porter            Applied and Computational Mathematics Division |
| don...@ni...             Information Technology Laboratory |
| http://math.nist.gov/~DPorter/                                  NIST |
|______________________________________________________________________|