Actually the cutoff date is 20 July 1998.  Builds up to that date report
as 1.8c; builds after that date report as 1.8d (and will not start without
a 1.8d LAK).  The latter are "true" beta builds, which means that they
contain all of the scheduled 1.8d functionality.  As we have explained
before, we don't increment the version number until that point is reached.

Nathan