[Distutils] PEP 386 status - last round here ?

[Floris Bruynooghe]

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 01:08:34PM +0100, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> Examples:
> 
>   3.2.0a0.20091125
> < 3.2.0a1
> = 3.2.0_alpha_1

Frankly I find this confusing.  I'm fine with 'alpha' being a synonym
for 'a' but the underscores just confuse things IMHO.

> < 3.2.0a1.20091125
> < 3.2.0rc1
> = 3.2.0c1
> < 3.2.0rc1.20091125
> = 3.2.0_rc1.20091125
> < 3.2.0
> < 3.2.0.sp1
> = 3.2.0.fix1
> = 3.2.0.post1

I also object to the alternatives for the 'dev' and 'post' markers as
they make it more confusing for me.  While someone might prefer one
word over the other their meaning does not change to decide their
ordering, that just seems like uneeded complexity (there should be
only one obvious way to do a thing?).

When I now see the versioning number of a project I need to go and
look up the pep to know if it's compliant but just using one of the
alternatives that I'm not used to.  If there's only one choice it's a
lot easier.

(This same argument goes for 'a' == 'alpha' 'b' == 'beta' and 'c' ==
'rc' but those at least are mnemonic so easier to remember)


> One nit I have with the order of the N.N.devN version is that it is regarded
> "more" than any of the pre-release tags, but less than the release itself:
> 
>   1.0a1
> < 1.0rc1
> < 1.0.dev456
> < 1.0
> 
> IMHO, the order should be:
> 
>   1.0.dev456
> < 1.0a1.dev456
> < 1.0a1
> < 1.0rc1.dev456
> < 1.0rc1
> < 1.0
> 
> since the .dev versions are really only snapshots leading up to
> some release, i.e. 1.0.dev456 is a snapshot leading up to the
> first pre-release of the 1.0 :-)

But in this case if I want to make a pre-release of 1.0 but after the
last rc then I can't, I can only make a post-release of the last rc.
That's almost more un-intuitive that forcing your first pre-release to
be '1.0a0.dev456' instead of just '1.0.dev456'.



Regards
Floris


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