[Plplot-devel] PLplot version string for the current CVS version

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

Rafael and I have been discussing this topic recently since it makes no
sense to call our documentation version 5.2.0 when it is clearly done after
that release.  Same goes for any tarball we create now leading up to our
next release.  It makes no sense to call it 5.2.0, but it also makes no
sense to call it say 5.2.1.pre since we are not actually sure of that number
until actual release time when the version decision will be made.  We both
agree that old version suffixed with cvs and date (e.g., 5.2.0.cvs.20030303)
would work.

We are considering implementing this so that the date on the version
automatically gets changed to the current date whenever you run bootstrap.sh
(with an option to turn this off and just use the string in configure.ac
with no cvs.date for new releases).  Would that automatic change to version
(unless you specifically opt out) be acceptable to everyone, or are there
some practical side effects to that potentially daily version change which
would cause problems for our cvs developers?  If you do favour a largely
static version string between releases, please come up with a decent version
string that is higher in the collating sequence than the previous version,
is different from the previous version, but which doesn't pre-judge what the
next version will be. (5.2.0.development or 5.2.0.cvs?). But I would prefer
the date in the version simply because our cvs is changing all the time, and
clearly the CVS version on the 3rd and today are different, and therefore it
just makes sense to call them something different (e.g., 5.2.0.cvs.20030303
and 5.2.0.cvs.20030312).

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and
Analysis (www.cccma.bc.ec.gc.ca) and the PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org).

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