Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/11/29/09:31:14
David Jenkins <me AT jenkinsdavid DOT demon DOT co DOT uk> wrote:
> >What the heck is that? A detergent?
> Yep, it deters gents. Or something. :)
Oh well answered, sir!
> >> version 5 release *p* will compile *right-outta-the-box* with the base
> >> distribution of DJGPP, and everything seems to work splendidly.
> >
> >Well I should hope so!
And as I said in another post, I would /hope/ so but I wouldn't expect it.
Very few pieces of software really compile (and run!) straight "out of the
box" without tweaking.
> >> release *q* MAY have a bug which causes insert mode to get "stuck",
> >> making it impossible to quit the program! (release *p* does NOT have
> >> this bug).
> >
> >Every version of Vile I've ever seen has bugs where you can get stuck
> >unable to edit or even unable to exit.
>
> I'm confused by the version numnering system used, I've NEVER seen
> anything like this before.
> This is Version 5 release *p*, a previous release *q* had a bug.
No, a /later/ release (at that time the current) 'q' has the bug. You've
never seen software gain bugs when it's modified? You've never used
Microsoft, Borland or any other commercial software?
> 1'st query *q* comes after *p*, in my Earth language anyway.
Damn, I can't even make jokes about American versus English because you're
from a .uk site <g>...
> 2'nd query *p* isn't the 5'th letter from the beginning of the alphabet
> nor the 5'th from the end, in my Earth language anyway.
Why should it be?
5.0q = major release '5', minor release '0', patch level 'q'. The letters
indicate that this is an alpha test version of the new version 5.0 (the
previous released version was 4.6; a lot of things have been changed in
the new version so it merits a major version change rather than a minor
one).
> What method do you use for assigning version number/letters??
If there is a major interface change then the major version number (the
one before the dot) is incremented. For instance, version 5 of VIM gained
syntax highlighting, and the syntax of configuration files change, among
other things, that makes it a major change to the interface.
If there are other changes which don't materially affect the interface (for
instance bug fixes) then the minor version is incremented (and the one
after 4.9 would in this case be 4.10 (read "four point ten") - some people
prefer to start with two or three digits so you'd get 5.001 etc.).
If it is an alpha (or beta) version then a letter is appended. This
indicates both that the version is still under test and which patch level
is applicable (for reporting bugs and fixes mainly).
What happens after 26 patch releases I don't know, he's never got that far
yet. There are precedents for using aa, bb, cc etc. and for using aa, ab, ac
etc.) When the software is released the letter is dropped, so when the
new version of VIM is released it will be 5.0 with no letter. The one after
will start at 5.1a for the alpha versions etc.
(Actually, I can imagine one which started at 'z' and worked down to 'a'
and then got released. It would probably confuse everyone but me, though...)
This, or something like it, is used by most real software developers.
Commercial vendors like Microsoft and Wordstar don't count, they just make
up numbers which sound nice (for instance Wordstar went from version 4 to
version 5 wit hmainly bug fixes, then from 5 to 5.5 with a major interface
change, with several fairly drastic changes in subversion updates; MS Word
introduced a lot of major changes in versions 6.0a, 6.0b etc but relatively
few in version 7; etc.)
Chris C
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