Maybe this would be unworkable in git or whatnot but perhaps always making the minor version field double digit would do the trick?
0.9.03 0.9.09 0.9.10 ... 0.9.30 etc
this would fix the sorting problems that arise from going from single to double digit names in most programs too. As long as the major and minor fields always have the same number of digits it will sort correctly even with alphanumeric names. Of course they would have to update the older versions to double digits but that isn't impossible.
Of course if you break 99 minor revisions you'd run into the problem again but I think 99 minor revisions is a lot harder to over run than 9. Plus, maybe if we have 99 minor versions it would be time for an increase in the major version number =)
I'd be willing to implement this for a summer of code project.
Just kidding. =) Hopefully I'll come up with something more exciting that you guys will like.
Just a thought, John Klehm
On 2/16/07, Andrew Talbot Andrew.Talbot@talbotville.com wrote:
Scott Ritchie wrote:
On several occasions I have received emails referring to Wine version 0.9.3. One person even told me about a regression from 0.9.28 to 0.9.3.
Presumably, this version is being confused with Wine 0.9.30 in these letters, however I have been unable to tell whether people were ACTUALLY using 0.9.3 or were instead simply referring to 0.9.30 in the intuitive way of chopping off the last 0.
Either way, version numbers should be completely clear, and they're not currently. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point.
Thanks, Scott Ritchie
The problem arises when version control programs sort the release "tags" alphanumerically, presenting them in the following order, since the digits are just treated as members of an extended alphabet, not as real numbers.
Wine-0_9 Wine-0_9_1 Wine-0_9_10 ... Wine-0_9_19 Wine-0_9_2 Wine-0_9_20 ... Wine-0_9_29 Wine-0_9_3 Wine-0_9_30
I think it's probably only a trap for people who download from a source repository - and it is not a problem peculiar to Wine. Packaged versions are unlikely to be presented in this bizarre order.
-- Andy.