[Japag-devl] Japag Version Numbering

[P72endragon <p72...@us...>]

Hi,

Over the last few months, there have been a number of bug fixes and minor
enhancements made to Japag, and I think it's about time it was released. I
notice the current version is 1.3c. I'm not clear what the previous policy
has been regarding how much of a change warrants each component of the
version number to be incremented.

I've been thinking about tweaking the current numbering system to make it
more consistent with other applications. I'm considering a format along the
lines of "major.minor.maintenance" where each component is a number,
separated by a decimal point. The significance of each component is as
follows:


   - Major: The code has been changed in a way such that XML configuration
   files that worked on a previous major version will not work on a newer major
   version. In other words, a major change can be considered as a "breaking
   change". To a greater or lesser extent, it is not backwards compatible.


   - Minor: One or more new things have been added to improve Japag. This
   should in no way break any existing functionality and all XML configuration
   files that worked on a previous minor version will work on a newer minor
   version.


   - Maintenance: Bug fixes. This is simply to fix some functionality that
   doesn't work as it should do.

One thing I'm not sure about is how to handle updates to XML configuration
files that are distributed as part of the Japag download. A couple of
options that come to mind include:

   - Every change counts as a maintenance release


   - Every change to an existing config counts as a maintenance release, but
   any new configs that get added count as a minor release.


   - Bug fixes in existing configs count as maintenance releases, but new
   functionality in an existing config or adding a new config counts as a minor
   release.

My initial feelings are that the last option provides the most consistent
approach with the application in general. Users will view it as a
maintenance release fixes stuff that was wrong and a minor release gives
them something new/improved. Neither of these will break anything, so any
configs they've developed themselves will continue to work. Only a major
release will break any existing configs. In this way, I can perhaps foresee
a time when there are 1.x and 2.x releases being maintained side-by-side.

The last release was 1.3c. Since then there have been a number of bug fixes,
minor enhancements and two new configs added. Therefore, this would count as
a minor release. To keep the numbering in step, I would suggest calling this
next release 1.4.0

Does anyone have any thoughts or comments on this?

Regards,

Paul Walker