Dear GAP Forum,

A final (we hope) patch release of GAP version 3 release 4 will be made in St
Andrews in January 1997. The main purpose of this release will be to gather
together all the bugfixes since version 3.4.3, and to announce new and
upgraded share libraries, additional character tables and other optional
additions to the system. A few, VERY limited enhancements to the library may
be included, if we can be very certain that no new bugs are introduced. There
will be no changes to the kernel, except for integration of the sources for
the latest Apple Macintosh version.

The purpose of this message is to ask the users of the system, developers of
packages and others to make a particular effort to report any bugs,
suggestions for VERY small improvements, or new packages, as soon as possible,
so that we will have time to integrate them with the system, and test them
thoroughly, before January. Upgrades to refereed share packages (or packages
accepted before we started refereeing) will not need to be (re-)refereed, they
will simply be checked for correct packaging and documentation. We may also
suggest small improvements, for example to take advantage of other parts of
the system which have also been enhanced.

Steve Linton