Merging to the release_1_6 branch

[Joshua Root]

Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> On May 27, 2008, at 6:28 PM, Rainer M?ller wrote:
> 
>> What I didn't like about your initial proposal was the "convergence  
>> period" which I interpreted to put trunk into code freeze. In my  
>> opinion, you should branch off the release if you think the current  
>> feature set in trunk would make a good release and stabilize the  
>> code on this release branch. Then you roll the release. And that all  
>> while work on trunk continues as normal.
> 
> Code freezes are more like "code slushes" in trunk and can be done  
> without too much disruption.  Also, if the tree is so unready to  
> release at a given time that it would require weeks of code freeze to  
> stabilize, you simply don't release then.  I have also seen releases  
> done by essentially going backwards in time; you figure out that the  
> tree was a lot more stable a week ago than today, you check out the  
> tree as of one week ago and release that.

I would have no objection to tagging trunk today and calling it an -rc1. 
Well, except that there are apparently some bug fixes in the 1.6 branch 
that are not in trunk - argh!

- Josh