[GAP Forum] Beta release of GAP 4.9

[Alexander Konovalov]

Dear package authors, GAP users and developers,

This is to announce GAP 4.9.0 (the beta release of GAP 4.9), which may
be downloaded from https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/

For Linux and macOS, use one of the following archives, which have the
same content and only differ by the archive format:

* https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0.tar.bz2
* https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0.tar.gz
* https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0.zip

For Windows, use one of the following archives:

* standard 32-bit version: 
  - https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0-win.zip

* 32-bit version without readline support (to use in case of any 
  techinical problems with the standard version): 
  - https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0-noreadline-win.zip

* experimental 64-bit version: 
  - https://www.gap-system.org/pub/gap/gap-4.9/beta/gap-4.9.0-win64.zip

The changes in GAP 4.9 are documented on this Wiki page, which contains 
links to actual pull requests and related discussions:

	https://github.com/gap-system/gap/wiki/GAP-4.9-release-notes

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 4.9 during the next two months. We are asking for all updates to be
made available by April 1st, 2018 and will be planning the first public
release shortly after that.

Finally, it is my great pleasure to thank everyone who contributed to
the core GAP system and GAP packages to made GAP 4.9 beta happening. 

Best regards,
Alexander