[Lazarus] Lazarus trunk version number

[Maxim Ganetsky]

01.07.2023 10:59, Sven Barth via lazarus пишет:
> Maxim Ganetsky via lazarus <lazarus at lists.lazarus-ide.org> schrieb am 
> Fr., 30. Juni 2023, 15:48:
>
>     30.06.2023 16:44, Maxim Ganetsky via lazarus пишет:
>     > 30.06.2023 14:27, Martin Frb via lazarus пишет:
>     >> On 30/06/2023 12:51, Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus wrote:
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> On Fri, 30 Jun 2023, Juha Manninen via lazarus wrote:
>     >>>
>     >>>> On Friday, June 30, 2023, John Landmesser via lazarus <
>     >>>> lazarus at lists.lazarus-ide.org> wrote:
>     >>>>
>     >>>>> perhaps that should have become 3.00 ?
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> Lazarus *3.99* (rev main_3_99-41-g3d8dd85474) FPC 3.2.2
>     >>>>> x86_64-linux-gtk2
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> You are looking at trunk, the development version. See :
>     >>>>
>     https://wiki.freepascal.org/Version_Numbering#Lazarus_3.0_and_newer
>     >>>
>     >>> You might want to add some explanation for this new versioning
>     >>> scheme to that page.
>     >>
>     >> Added.
>     >
>     > I made some improvements, hope it is even more clear now.
>     >
>     >>> The graph does not help.
>     >>>
>     >>> From what is currently there, I don't understand neither the
>     logic
>     >>> nor the need of this change.
>     >> "Need"... Well, in terms of "because it solved the issue xyz"
>     => then
>     >> there is no need.
>     >
>     > Basically, version numbering is all about "marketing". By always
>     > increasing major version we tell to the general audience that major
>     > release indeed contains major changes (which is always the case).
>     >
>     > So we solve/improve "marketing" issues.
>     >
>     BTW, in my opinion FPC has similar issues and will benefit from such
>     approach to versioning too.
>
>
> In FPC the major number *has* a meaning, namely that there have been 
> significant changes in the code generator. Towards the 2.x series it 
> was the rewrite of the different backends and for the 3.x series it 
> was the introduction of the high level code generator.
> The minor number is then to signify a new release with many new 
> features on top of the same base architecture and the release number 
> is then to differentiate between development and stable.
Wow, I did not know this. Thanks for clarification. But see below.
> We don't follow "marketing".

The main motivation behind our change was the following: versioning 
should reflect development workflow. We didn't have concrete criteria 
for differentiating between major/minor version increase.

Everything else is basically a side-effect of versioning scheme 
simplification.

Still, I have a feeling that "marketing" issues (and yes, versioning is 
very small fragment in this picture) are grossly underestimated.

I know for sure:

1. News about major Lazarus releases felt into "mini-news" section on 
some news websites.

2. Users were confused about Lazarus versions (you can not believe it, 
but still).

3. People (general audience not following development process) simply 
don't understand when major version is not increased for prolonged 
periods (in case of FPC it is like 10 years?) and tend to think that the 
project is stagnating.

-- 
Best regards,
  Maxim Ganetskymailto:ganmax at narod.ru
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