[GAP Forum] Beta release of GAP 4.8

[Alexander Konovalov]

Dear package authors, GAP users and developers,

This is to announce GAP 4.8.0 (the beta release of GAP 4.8), which may be 
downloaded from 

* http://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap48/beta/gap4r8p0_2015_11_01-13_28.tar.gz

for Linux and OS X, and from

* http://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap48/beta/gap4r8p0_2015_11_01-13_28-win.zip

* http://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap48/beta/gap4r8p0_2015_11_01-13_28-noreadline-win.zip

for Windows (with GAP binaries compiled with and without readline support respectively).

All listed above archives contain 3 new GAP packages and 27 GAP packages updated
after the release of GAP 4.7.8. There is also an archive of the core GAP 4.8.0 
system without packages:

* http://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap48/beta/gap4r8p0_core2015_11_01-13_28.zip

GAP 4.8 will be the first major GAP release that will be made from the official 
development repository for GAP on GitHub (https://github.com/gap-system/gap).

The changes in GAP 4.8 are documented in the Changes manual, which is included 
in GAP 4.8.0 distribution. They are also listed on this Wiki page, which contains 
some additional details and may list further changes in the future:

   https://github.com/gap-system/gap/wiki/Changes-between-GAP-4.7-and-GAP-4.8

We invite users and developers to test the beta release and report any problems
using one of the following channels:
* the GAP issue tracker: https://github.com/gap-system/gap/issues
* Open GAP Development mailing list: http://mail.gap-system.org/mailman/listinfo/gap
* GAP Support: http://www.gap-system.org/Contacts/People/supportgroup.html

Package authors are recommended to test and update their packages for GAP 4.8 
during the next three months. We are asking for all updates to be made available
by February 1st, 2016, and will be planning the first public release shortly
after that.

Best wishes,
Alexander