release numbering scheme

[yorik]

More and more projects I stumble upon use this version numbering scheme:
- stable versions ar even numbers: 12, 14, 16...
- development versions are odd numbers: 13, 15, 17

So basically you use an odd number while developing, then when you release a version, you bump a number up, then, immediately after, you bump the number again.

This looks nice to me, no more 0.16 development version vs. 0.16 stable version... 0.16 would always refer to the stable version. What would you all think if we adopted that scheme after 0.16? We could release 0.16 then immediately after, it would be 0.17 until next release, which would be 0.18...

[quick61]

Looking at it over the long term, that does not sound like a bad idea. It would make it easier to sort out at a glance, that's for sure.

So yea, +1

Mark

[PrzemoF]

My 2 cents: long time ago linux kernel was using that scheme. We should think first what is a difference between a stable and a development version and if we need to have development versions at all. I'm fan of nightly builds + Release Candidate series before a stable release. Nightly builds mean that every day there is a development release. So every day (or every commit) there would be version 0.16-XXXX, once in a while 0.16-rc1, 0.16-rc2 and finally stable 0.16.

Developers have to compile the source, adventurous users play with nightly builds and a normal user goes only for stable versions.

[wmayer]

+1

[jmaustpc]

Like Mark said, it would have the advantage of quickly and easily seeing if a version is stable or dev, particularly after the passage of some time.

In recent years, FreeCAD dev has been more stable (in the sense of not crashing and bugs fixed) and feature full, than the stable versions. Hence dev has been a better version for most users. The "stable" or Release versions have the advantage of non-changing code when coding an extension, but otherwise in most cases, most of the time, most users would be likely better off with the dev version. A lot in the Windows world seem to be frightened off by the dev version, thinking they need the "stable version".

So anyway I think odd/even version numbering is an option that could work well. Lets try it for a while and see how it goes.

[DeepSOIC]

Some time before, when 0.15 release discussion was beginning, I though on suggesting this but I didn't. So +1

[PrzemoF]

Like Mark said, it would have the advantage of quickly and easily seeing if a version is stable or dev, particularly after the passage of some time.[..]

OK, I get the idea. With the other numbering scheme all short numbers are stable (0.16, 0.17) and the rest are development versions.

So, bugs reported by users for version 0.22... A bug has been introduced during development in version 0.21, reported for 0.22, but it will be fixed in version 0.23, released to user in 0.24?

Once a stable vesion is out there will be no upadates/backporting or will be a secondary numbering, like 0.18.1, 0.18.2?

I'm just trying to analyse how the system is going to work - I'm compiling FreeCAD x times per day, so I won't be using development/stable version any time soon.

[jmaustpc]

With the other numbering scheme all short numbers are stable (0.16, 0.17) and the rest are development versions.

Something like that could work as well, for me the point is making a quick glance at the version number obvious if it is dev or release.

By the way I compile from source as well and when I say dev or release I do not mean if it is compiled or not. I mean is it the version of the source code tagged as a release or is it code from master at some arbitrary time. Hence when the "Help about FreeCAD" data is published you would not be left thinking "now 16.5262, was that the stable release version number of 0.16, or a snap shot of master at some or other point in time working up to 0.16?"

[yorik]

OK, I get the idea. With the other numbering scheme all short numbers are stable (0.16, 0.17) and the rest are development versions.
So, bugs reported by users for version 0.22... A bug has been introduced during development in version 0.21, reported for 0.22, but it will be fixed in version 0.23, released to user in 0.24?
Once a stable vesion is out there will be no upadates/backporting or will be a secondary numbering, like 0.18.1, 0.18.2?
I'm just trying to analyse how the system is going to work - I'm compiling FreeCAD x times per day, so I won't be using development/stable version any time soon.

This is just a numbering scheme... It won't change fundamentally the way we work, be it called "0.16 development verison" or "0.17 version". How we treat stable versions vs development branch is another subject...

[PrzemoF]

Right, let's move on!

P.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson ... triviality