When will 1.8 be branched?

[Matthew Dillon]

    I am branching the tree today.

    But, guys, the release date hasn't change.  Branch != release.  I
    pushed back the release date to late January in December and haven't
    puished it back a second time.

    The only thing that has been pushed back since has been the branch date.

    The release date is still set for one week from now, either this coming
    Saturday or Sunday.

    It's simply a matter of developer convenience.  We can't branch while
    developers are still putting major bits into the tree because it would
    result in developers having to then commit the work to both branches.

						-Matt