Post-2.12 release plans

[Graham Percival]

Once 2.12 is out and we've succeeded in setting up GUB3 on
kainhofer, I'll become the Release Manager.  I have two ideas on
how to change things:

1)  Move to a linux kernel type of releases: instead of having
separate devel and stable branches, we just do everything in 2.12.
In some ways, we've been doing this already; we haven't touched
2.10 in quite a while.

2)  Keep the distinction between stable and devel, but tie it to
the input syntax, and allow for much faster releases.  In
particular, there would be *no* convert-ly rules for 2.12.  New
constructs would be fine, but any patches that would change
existing syntax would be delayed until 2.13.

In the past we've avoided this kind of policy since it slows down
development, but my proposal is to have /much/ faster development
cycles.  Maybe something like 3 months of 2.12 releases, then 2
months of 2.13 releases (including the delayed syntax changes),
and then 2.14.  Then we'd repeat it again.

Yes, this would mean that some patches would be delayed a few
months, but with git it's easier to test them in separate
branches.  We'd also be flexible about when to start 2.13 -- if
there was a great new feature that required changing the existing
syntax, we could start .13 earlier than 3 months.  Conversely, if
all development is simply adding new features or fixing bugs, we
don't start .13 until later.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
- Graham