We're overhauling the Racket installer builds for the main download site (after the upcoming v8.17) and snapshot sites (sooner). One question is how much to keep building installers for the old BC variant of Racket. The newer CS variant has been the default since v8.0 (February 2021), and the intent has always been that BC would eventually become unsupported.
Does anyone need the BC installers, either in release form or snapshot form? Or can we just stop building them?
Currently, both CS and BC variants of Racket are available for most platforms. At the release download site, you have to click "More Installers and Checksums" to find BC installers, except that BC is the default installer for 32-bit x86/Intel on Windows and Mac OS.
BC will still build for the foreseeable future, and we would probably set up a periodic build of BC installers as a test. But BC builds would not be available for, say, CI tests that use a release or snapshot installation.
This change would not mean that fewer platforms are supported for Racket. For example, the 32-bit x86/Intel on Windows and Mac OS will switch to CS, but maybe only in Minimal Racket form. We'll likely expand the set of platforms with Minimal Racket builds, but provide full Racket builds only for the most popular platforms.
If we do drop BC builds, then it would make sense to number the first CS-only Racket release as version v9.0.
