Version numbering post 1.0

[Aaron Bentley]

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John Whitley wrote:
> Robert Collins wrote:
>> the folk that react emotively will be.
> 
> I think the term "emotively" is a bit disingenuous perceptions of
> software versions and common conventions there.

For some people, it really is that.  They feel uncomfortable using
anything less than 1.0.  For Microsoft products, make that 3.0, service
pack 1.

> Not everyone has the
> time or energy to follow project feature sets, release goals, and so
> forth.  There is a highly useful self-marketing element to declaring a
> "1.0" at some point

Sure, and I don't think anyone's questioning the value of a 1.0.  It's
the 0.90 that doesn't make much sense to some of us.  This is an open
source project, not a centrally-managed one, so features and fixes go in
as people scratch itches, not according to a plan.  And it does
time-based releases.  Both of those factors make it seem foolish to try
to indicate how close we are to 1.0 via a version number.

> release announcement and the NEWS file.  In contrast, NNN is the monthly
> release code, that doesn't even have to be never reset.  Thus a series
> of releases might map out as:
> 
> 0.18
> 0.90 (19)

Alas, release 0.90 won't be our 19th release, it will be our something
like our 26th.  (There's a discontinuity between 0.1.1 and 0.6, and we
used to increment the bugfix number for each release.  We had one called
0.0.0.69, and another called 0.0.2.1!)

> 0.90 (20)
> ...
> 1.0 (25)   -- All targeted 1.0 features have landed
> 1.0 (26)   -- Monthly update.  Just bugfixes, analogous to a patchlevel

I don't think bugfixes should be the monthly update.  I think they
should be need-based.  I think the monthly update should typically be a
minor version, as it is now.

Aaron
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