Stable releases

[Neil Jerram]

I've been wondering whether we could make stable releases on a more
predictable basis than we have done in the past.

In principle, it seems to me that we should make a new stable release
whenever - and as soon as - we make a fix in one of the stable
branches.  In practice, we might want to temper that a little, by

(a) leaving a short while - say 2-3 days - after committing a fix,
    just in case of a glaring mistake that would be picked up by
    another developer building

(b) postponing a release following one fix if we know that some other
    fixes will be available every soon - to avoid stupidly frequent
    releases.

If we followed this, I'm pretty sure the result would be more frequent
stable releases than in the past.  I don't see any problem with that,
in fact I think it would be a good thing... but then I've never
prepared a release myself.  Is the release process sufficiently easy
and automated that it would allow us to do this?  And what does
everyone else think about whether it's a good idea?

Regards,
     Neil