It's honestly not much earlier than any other major update. If I'm right, it'll stay in the dev version for a few months, releasing around snapcon. I could be wrong here, so don't take my word for it.
Yes, that's the plan. It'll be worth having a new major version number! :~)
I thought Snap! was in, what, 6.8? last April or May.
We're now in 7.3.1, which is a bug-fix of 7.3. So the question was whether the next substantive release would be 7.4, or whether it's different enough to be 8.0. Jens decided on the latter.
A major release, if I'm not mistaken, by definition, has something major happen to whatever it's a version of. Exempli gratia, for Snap! 7: scenes, custom categories, and block introspection. Here I see ASK menus and steps towards programmic block definition. ASK menus aren't exactly that major, and while I could see programmic block definition being major, currently it's only steps towards it. Now if he made it almost complete, then I could see Snap! 8 arriving.
Well, there's still a month and a half until Snap!Con. :~)
Exciting. I've only been here since November or so, and already seeing such a high amount of additions. Seems like you're making the language almost as fast as I'm learning it.
This has been a particularly exciting time, the past year or so, with huge jumps in the expressiveness of Snap!.