Considering a version 8 at some point...

Hi friends,

I've mentioned before that I'd like to see us move on to version 8 before the
minor number reaches 100 to avoid confusions. I think we're at too large
numbers now - they get hard to remember and are easily mixed up.

curl version 7.1 was released on August 7 2000 and we've stuck to version 7
ever since. I wanted to stick to version 7 for as long as we remained API
compatable - even if we ignored a few chances to bump the number when we
bumped the SONAME a few times in the early 2000s.

In October 2006 we shipped curl 7.16.0 and we haven't bumped the major SONAME
number since. My strong hope is that we never will again.

So, I think we need to consider doing a version 8 release without an SONAME
bump. I think we should just do it at some point, without putting many
requirements of any new bells or whistles. Similar to how the Linux kernel
does it, if you will.

My current thinking, as I mentioned in some release video recently, is that we
make our 200th release version 8.0. Not because it actually means anything,
but because it gives us something to aim at. And its a fine, even and aligned
number.

The release coming tomorrow is going to become version 7.71.1 and is our 193rd
release since the beginning. If we go to version 8.0 on release 200, it means
only 6 more release in the version 7 series and if we manage to do full
release cycles (which is probably a bit optimistic) we could perhaps be at
version 8.0 in a little less than a year from now. With a few short release
cycles added to the mix, maybe already in the early 2021.

What do you think?

-- 
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