Setting a date for the 2.31 branch

[Cary Coutant]

>   The last binutils release was in January, so if we want to keep a 6
>   month cadence then then next release should be in July.  With my
>   Fedora hat on though, it would be very convenient if the next release
>   happened before July 11, as that is when the next mass rebuild will
>   happen.  Thus I am considering creating the branch a little bit early,
>   say June 23 (a Saturday) in order to give enough time for testing and
>   bug fixing.
>
>   How would this fit in with your plans ?  A branch on the 23rd would
>   give us another week to add in any new features that we want in the
>   2.31 release.  This is not a lot of time, I know, but I do not think
>   that there are big changes currently in the pipeline.  Are there ?

The one major bit of new functionality I'm aware of on the horizon is
the nanoMIPS port. Even if those patches were to surface today,
though, it would probably be unrealistic to think they would make it
in by 6/23. If we want that port in 2.31, we'd probably have to delay
the release longer than you'd like. You may want to check with them to
see if they were hoping that feature would make it into this next
release.

-cary