> I thought the rule of thumb was compiling SVN versions are not meant for distribution > and only for that person to use/run it themselves. > > Unless you have some major/significant work and progress that applies specifically to > your front end which cannot wait for the official cycles, it is my opinion you should > respect the U and Full release cycles and not distribute SVN builds.
I disagree. I think the release cycle concept is outdated. u releases made sense when development was so active that you could do one every 2 weeks. They should just all be integer releases now - it would eliminate a lot of confusion, and be much more in sync with how development actually happens nowadays.
As I said above, the most stable MAME is almost always an SVN pull around 24 hours after a release, not the release itself.