Re: Major update just committed

["Stefan Monnier" <monnier+gnu/emacs@rum.cs.yale.edu>]

>     Glad to hear, if that means we *will* branch for 21.5 after Gnus and
>     CC-mode are here.
> 
> I don't think we should make a branch for the next non-bug-fix
> release.  We should think of what will be the next non-bug-fix release
> as the main focus of work, so it should be in the trunk.  It will need
> a considerable amount of work to become reliable, I expect.  Some
> smaller features can still be installed during that time.
> 
> Rather, people should start putting major changes into other branches.

If we have another branch (other than unicode) for major changes,
then we will not really focus on the trunk, methinks.

So I think we should do like we did for 21.1 and like most projects
do AFAIK, which is to say "freeze", spend some months debugging
and then (and only then) make a new branch (which is the release branch).

During the debugging phase people should just refrain from any "major work"
which would distract them from debugging.  When this "refraining" because
too difficult, it's a sign that there isn't enough debugging to do any more,
so it's a good time to branch.

As you said, it will probably take time to debug this beast, so we
should start the freeze as soon as possible.


	Stefan