What for 0.5?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi!

I think we should aim for a 0.5 release within 2 to 4 weeks.  So, what
do we put in there?

We already have nice things:

  • Better patch handling.

  • MIPS/N32 port.

  • Monads, and other API improvements.

In addition, I think we should:

  • Switch to GCC 4.8 as the default compiler, and thus rebuild the
    bootstrap binaries; optionally, arrange so that those bootstrap
    binaries are the fixed point.

  • Merge the ‘loongson’ branch in ‘core-updates’.

  • Come up with a new VM demo image, with a better (gnu system) API,
    and using a new dmd release (more on that later).

  • More packages, ideally in the GUI/desktop area (you can help! :-)).

What do you think?  Anything else?

I think we should aim for an installation CD image of a basic system
(one I could use ;-), which means dm-crypt, a working dmd, Xorg, and
IceCat, at least) by the end of the year.

Another thing to work on is the infrastructure: we’ll need a MIPS box in
Hydra, and a couple of powerful x86_64 boxes would be welcome.  Also, we
really need to patch Hydra and substitute-binary.scm to sign/verify
binaries.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Ludo’.