Re: Development/Production versions (was RE: CVS)

[robby <robby@cs.rice.edu>]

At 12:13 PM -0800 2/17/00, see signature wrote:
>Here is a question: current MzScheme release is 101.
>Let say, somebody found a bug and a bug has been promptly fixed.
>What will be the bug-fix version: 102  or 101/9 ?
>and how I destinguish a bug-fix version from the major release?
>Another practical question: how would I know when to upgrade my
>MzScheme-101 to incorporate latest bug fixes?

Ah -- if the bug has been fixed since 101, it will be in version 
102/<x>d<y>, where <x> and <y> are two numbers.

We do not use an othodox version numbering system. Matthew explained 
in an eralier message how the version numbers work -- basically each 
external version number is a natural number, one larger than the one 
before. Internally (ie CVS) releases have two numbers attached to 
them, the number after the slash and the number after the d. These 
correspond to the mred/mzscheme binary revision and the scheme code 
revision, respectively. Often these two numbers move independently of 
each other, (occasionally we have to syncronize them when a change in 
mz/mred would break something in drscheme) usually these numbers are 
not connected to each other at all.

So, If Matthew releases a new binary, the number after the slash will 
go up. If I release a new version of the Scheme code, the number 
after the d goes up. If a new version of the stepper or something 
else changes, there is no change in the version number. But if the 
stepper gets larger or beings to receive more outside input, the 
internal version numbers might become 102/<x>d<y>t<z> where the 
number after t indicates the revision number for the stepper.

We have put some thought into the version numbering system and what 
we have seems to suit our needs fairly well. Thanks for the 
suggestions, but we don't really have any plans to change this in the 
near future.

>I agree that for developers who are within 100  feet of each other any
>versioning scheme will work. But for those of us that are thousands of
>miles from Texas some more conventional and uniform method will be
>helpful.

As far as outside CVS users are concerned, you have, at any time, two 
versions to choose from. The latest in CVS (102/<x>d<y>) or the 
latest released version (101). There aren't any other versions 
between those or anything like that to choose from. Generally, the 
/<x>d<y> versions will be less stable.

Robby