[Distutils] Version numbers for module distributions

[John Skaller]

>My rationale for having some *suggested guidelines* is that most
>developers spend several years groping in the dark trying to figure out
>how to assign version numbers to their software.  Experienced hackers
>eventually figure it out, and really smart, far-thinking hackers just
>"get it" immediately and come up with a system that will work for them
>henceforth and forevermore.  I think most people, though, would benefit
>from a little friendly advice informed by the many decades of collective
>experience that will inform the "How to Develop and Distribute Python
>Modules" document that will come of all this.

        The problem I have with this is that the many years of
collective experience only shows the common mechanisms are grossly
inadequate.

        After all, many years of collective experience
shows the world is flat.

        Truth is not an issue of consensus. Neither is
doing version control anything to do with collective
experience with old, broken, paradigms.

>As long as we can a) explain the syntax, and b) write code to parse and
>compare version numbers, then any proposal is valid.  This one sounds
>valid.

        I don't agree. This sounds like "I'm Ok, Your're Ok".
The only 'valid' scheme is one which works. There are no
such schemes, none of them come even close to working.

        By FAR the best scheme is the Microsoft Active Update
mechanism, because it figures it all out, and installs updates
on demand. In my opinion. :-))
-------------------------------------------------------
John Skaller    email: skaller@maxtal.com.au
		http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller
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