[ANNOUNCE] Apache Groovy 2.6.0-alpha-4 released

[Paul King <pa...@apache.org>]

Dear community,

The Apache Groovy team is pleased to announce version 2.6.0-alpha-4 of
Apache Groovy. This is the last planned release in the 2.6 stream of
releases.

The Groovy 2.6 stream of releases was created as a cut-down version of
Groovy 3.0 back-ported to JDK7 but with features requiring JDK8
removed or offered with reduced functionality. We have decided to
retire this stream as of this release (2.6.0-alpha-4) to focus on
delivering Groovy 3.0 in a more timely fashion. Users wanting a
version supporting the Parrot parser but who are stuck on JDK7 should
use this version. Users on JDK8 and above should move straight to
Groovy 3.0 when available.

Apache Groovy is a multi-facet programming language for the JVM.
Further details can be found at the http://groovy.apache.org website.

This is a pre-release of a new version of Groovy.
We greatly appreciate any feedback you can give us when using this version.

This release includes 65 bug fixes/improvements as outlined in the changelog:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12318123&version=12342855

Sources, convenience binaries, downloadable documentation and an SDK
bundle can be found at: http://www.groovy-lang.org/download.html
We recommend you verify your installation using the information on that page.

Jars are also available within the major binary repositories.

We welcome your help and feedback and in particular want
to thank everyone who contributed to this release.

For more information on how to report problems, and to get involved,
visit the project website at https://groovy.apache.org/

Best regards,

The Apache Groovy team.