prepare next test release

[OKUJI Yoshinori]

Because we haven't released any GRUB test version for a while, we need
to prepare for making a test release now. So I and Gordon will
concentrate on the manuals rather than new features. I expect that
this will take about two weeks. The test release will be called
``0.90'', because we won't release 0.6 but 1.0. I really hope that we
won't have to release 0.91.

As a maintainer, I think I should tell you what prevents us from
making a public release. The requirement is that GRUB supports all the
features in Multiboot Specification 0.7. For now, the missing features
are disk I/O ports detection support and graphics support. I have
preliminary code for the former using Virtual 8086 mode, but the code
is not ready even for testers. The latter is relatively easy to
implement, because the basic code is already included in the official
GRUB source tree.

I guess that it will take at least one week to debug the v86 code, and
I have been (and will be) quite busy, so I haven't touched the code
for several weeks. If you are willing to work on it, let me know, and
I will send you my local source tree. For this work, you need deep
knowledge on the Intel x86 architecture and GNU assembler.

Okuji