on the way of doing the alpha release

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Right now, I'm still awaiting feedback on these issues:

- autoconf-archive URL:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2006-04/msg00150.html

- ac_cv_env and braces:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.autoconf.patches/3089

- mark LIBOBJDIR experimental:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-autoconf/2006-04/msg00030.html

- MSYS ln -s issue (needs testing):
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2006-04/msg00138.html

- standards.texi minor fixups:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2006-04/msg00006.html

- syntax-check exceptions (the first of the 2 patches):
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2006-04/msg00134.html


I'll wait a little while longer, and lacking better arguments, just
decide on the issues as I see fit.  The M4sh documentation patch as
well as the "spurious testsuite rebuilds" one can safely wait until
after the alpha.

Then there's the gnulib-additions patch.  Paul, do you want this in now?
I'm not completely done with the rewrite that will allow
AC_C_TYPE_RANGE_INTEGERS with no size overhead, but my current version
is functional.  I'll post it in the corresponding thread.


Meanwhile, I'd like to ask the crowd to please not commit anything
without explicit approval by a maintainer or me, simply to minimize
the amount of work I need to do for the release.  Of course, I'd like
to know about anything important that I may have missed, or any other
errors I've already made, or important new bugs.

After that, I'd like to try to do the release.  OK?

Cheers,
Ralf