>As fascinating a topic as cross-compilation is, I'm much more interested in
>the point I was trying to bring up, which was to do more routine testing as
>part of a continuous release cycle, and cutting loose the necessary things
>(like snapshots) to make that possible...
>
>        any more comments about the main point?

Well, speaking as a portmaster, the labour involved in doing more
testing and approaching a continuous release cycle *is* an important
factor, which does bear on your main point.

I don't kick snapshots out the door till I've installed the snapshot,
run it a few days myself, and rebuilt the snapshot from scratch with a
make -j3 or something.