Starting with HTML Tidy 5.4.0, HTACG will adopt a new branch management strategy utilizing master as the release branch, and next as the active development branch.
As described thoroughly in our VERSION.md document, this means that master will always consist of an even-numbered minor version, and activity will remain relatively quiet unless we backport a critical bug fix from next.
The next branch, then will host the majority of our development activity, and any contributions and PR’s should be against this branch. This means that next will always consist of an odd minor version number.
You can read the specifics about version numbers in our VERSION.md document.
As described above, the branch is very strongly correlated with the version. If you require a stable API and relatively stable output and don’t require the features and enhancements of an odd-numbered next version, then you should stick to master, even-numbered versions.
On the other hand if you are primarily a console application user, then the API isn’t likely as important to you, and you probably want the latest and greatest. If this describes you, you probably want to at least try out next.
If you are developing for Tidy, then you definitely want to stick to next, even for bug fixes meant for master. If it’s a critical enough bug fix, then one of our friendly team will back-port the fix to master.