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Another view: Of all the recent ideas of how version numbers should work, SemVer has this advantage: I know how to interpret version numbers. But when FF 31 b

Another view: Of all the recent ideas of how version numbers should work, SemVer has this advantage: I know how to interpret version numbers. But when FF 31 becomes FF 32 and Chrome 37 becomes Chrome 38, what will that mean? (I honestly don't know. Can anyone explain?)

spicyj 12y ago
Semantic versioning means less for a product like Firefox or Chrome than for a library like Underscore that thousands of other pieces of software rely on.
- trhway 12y ago
  the difference here is that a library does usually have some notion of well-defined interface/API and thus it is possible to determine/track and thus to communicate when the major (backward compatibility breakup), the minor (improvement, extension), and bug fix level changes happen. In case of the products like Chrome there is too much internal engineering effort would be required for too small payout in trying to define and maintain what the "interface" of the application is and when and what kind of changes happened to it.
  - comex 12y ago
    Browsers expose a large number of well-defined APIs to web pages! But breaking backwards compatibility for those is very rarely acceptable.
yepguy 12y ago
It means 6 weeks have passed since the last Firefox release, and they are releasing a snapshot of whatever features they were able to make stable in that time. Also, it will not be an extended support release, because 32 % 7 != 3 (every 7th release is an ESR starting at version 10).
- ggchappell 12y ago
  Well, now at last I know. Thanks!
infogulch 12y ago
SemVer has some objective meaning. How much meaning, how accurate it is, how objective, and how useful it is can be debated. The point is that it has some kind of objective interpretation at all. This is in contrast to almost every other versioning system which basically boils down to "and how does this change make you feel?"
Already__Taken 12y ago
Browsers aren't a great example as things like that really need to be A: Update to date and B: Can't break, i.e. no web browser is probably going to be able to remove the <FONT> HTML tag even though it should be out of use by what... a decade already? So all you need to see is if there is a newer version than your current one. v3.4.31 or v3.6.2 isn't really helping tell me anything. If I really care I have to read the patch notes either way.
- coldtea 12y ago
  >no web browser is probably going to be able to remove the <FONT> HTML tag even though it should be out of use by what... a decade already? You'd be surprised. Even thousands of webpages written TOMORROW will use the FONT tag.

spicyj 12y ago

Semantic versioning means less for a product like Firefox or Chrome than for a library like Underscore that thousands of other pieces of software rely on.

trhway 12y ago
the difference here is that a library does usually have some notion of well-defined interface/API and thus it is possible to determine/track and thus to communicate when the major (backward compatibility breakup), the minor (improvement, extension), and bug fix level changes happen. In case of the products like Chrome there is too much internal engineering effort would be required for too small payout in trying to define and maintain what the "interface" of the application is and when and what kind of changes happened to it.
- comex 12y ago
  Browsers expose a large number of well-defined APIs to web pages! But breaking backwards compatibility for those is very rarely acceptable.

yepguy 12y ago

It means 6 weeks have passed since the last Firefox release, and they are releasing a snapshot of whatever features they were able to make stable in that time. Also, it will not be an extended support release, because 32 % 7 != 3 (every 7th release is an ESR starting at version 10).

ggchappell 12y ago
Well, now at last I know. Thanks!

infogulch 12y ago

SemVer has some objective meaning. How much meaning, how accurate it is, how objective, and how useful it is can be debated. The point is that it has some kind of objective interpretation at all. This is in contrast to almost every other versioning system which basically boils down to "and how does this change make you feel?"

Already__Taken 12y ago

Browsers aren't a great example as things like that really need to be A: Update to date and B: Can't break, i.e. no web browser is probably going to be able to remove the <FONT> HTML tag even though it should be out of use by what... a decade already? So all you need to see is if there is a newer version than your current one. v3.4.31 or v3.6.2 isn't really helping tell me anything. If I really care I have to read the patch notes either way.

coldtea 12y ago
>no web browser is probably going to be able to remove the <FONT> HTML tag even though it should be out of use by what... a decade already? You'd be surprised. Even thousands of webpages written TOMORROW will use the FONT tag.