[dev-crypto-csharp] Beta release 1.8.0-beta.1 now available

[Peter Dettman]

Hi All,
After a long drought in the C# API since 1.7, we're finally approaching 
a new 1.8 release. We will be releasing a series of beta builds over the 
next few weeks hopefully leading to a 1.8.0-final around March/April. 
The first of these betas is now available.

Apart from rolling up the many bugfixes made over the last 3 years, this 
first beta also includes major performance improvements in Math.EC 
ported from our Java API, and the final release should see the 
Crypto.Tls namespace brought up to date with the Java version also (i.e. 
(D)TLS 1.2, server-side, session-resumption, much-improved EC support, 
many new ciphersuites and extensions).

Binary and source archives for beta versions can be downloaded from: 
http://downloads.bouncycastle.org/betas/ .

Once the final release of 1.8 is out, our intention is to move to .NET 
2.0 for future development; the following release will be versioned 
2.0.0, reflecting the more-than-likely breaking API changes that will 
flow from addition of e.g. generics. An overhaul of the build processes 
and source code organization is also planned. We will maintain a bugfix 
branch for 1.8 at least for the foreseeable future.

Your help in trying out the betas and providing us feedback is greatly 
appreciated.

Regards,
Pete Dettman