[Rubygems-developers] Version number format

[David A. Black]

Hi --

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Jim Weirich wrote:

> 
> Chad Fowler said:
> > The only problem I see with Jim's suggestion is that there is no way
> > (currently) for the gem installer to differentiate between these bleeding
> > edge releases and a normal upgrade.  So, if you want to update the latest
> > *stable* release, you have to specify a version string.  I would find that
> > to be annoying.   Anyone have an idea of how we could fix that in this
> > scenario?  I like the fact that with the -snapshot method, you could
> > continue to update the stable version in parrallel to the snapshot
> > version.
> 
> Debian separates its servers into three areas: stable, testing and
> unstable.  We could do something similar by putting snapshots into a
> different area of the repository, so you don't get them unless you are
> explicitly looking for bleeding edge software.

My sense of this, and also of special snapshot version numbering, is
that it's one level down from what I think of as the level at which
gems operates.  Somehow getting into questions about how people should
manage their pre-releases seems outside the gem domain to me.  My
favorite option is still to have gems offer a uniform interface and
let people name their gem "-snapshot" if that best describes what
they're releasing.


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack at wobblini.net