Update - was Re: DMD needs branches

[Chris Miller]

DMD v1.012 seems good; I'm not having the issues I experienced that were  
introduced in v1.011.

I also decided to test my code that was having some memory garbage  
collected too early if I didn't use std.gc.setV1_0() and the problem seems  
fixed now (without the v1.0 call). I haven't been testing this particular  
issue with all the recent releases, so it was probably fixed a few  
versions ago.

"Bug ridden" isn't so accurate, as I previously phrased; sorry about that.  
I was actually referring to the earlier 1.0 versions, and then this v1.011  
released with breaking issues. DMD v1.012 seems considerably more stable  
than those earlier 1.0 versions.

I still think something needs to be done to minimize instability, even if  
it's just the previously proposed one-week-early prerelease to catch  
obvious slip-ups. A prerelease/beta page can have a specific date that it  
will go public, so users know exactly when they have to report their  
issues without it being too late. Any reported and fixed issues will cause  
the prerelease to be replaced and the date will probably be reset to be  
another week from that day. An upside to the prereleases is you don't need  
to keep them available beyond their prerelease lifetime.

How the current dmd.zip is only referring to 1.010 is not enough, although  
I appreciate the effort. A lot of people, including myself, download from  
the changelog and/or expect to get the top version. I think a separate  
branch or prerelease will at least put people into a different mindset  
about new versions, because there will be a clear separation.

Also, the prereleases can be used to try out new stuff, which can say  
there is no planned release time. E.g. that regex syntax that popped up  
for a version or two.

- Chris