[plt-scheme] proposal for indicating planet package version numbers

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 11:34 PM, Robby Findler <robby at cs.uchicago.edu> wrote:
> I've just now pointed to Jacob's paper, but just to reinforce the
> point: no I don't think that something like that would work (unless
> you consider the planet version number itself to be the modifier)
> since the version numbers are pretty tightly integrated with the way
> planet automatically resolves dependencies for you (something debian
> doesn't do).

I can imagine only having PLaneT version numbers, but Neil's point
about cross-Scheme development is a good one.

At the same time, the PLaneT version numbers are critical to the
require statement. Of course, the web interface presents a sample
require statement, so one can just copy-paste a working require
statement without knowing that there are two version numbers. It's
mostly in communication with users that it might become confusing.

Thinking about  Hendrik's question, and Neil's original question
(could it be presented differently, so as to be less confusing), the
PLaneT number could also become minor version numbers. That is, if his
package is user-version 3.5, and the PLaneT number is 6.1, then it
could become 3.5.6.1 in presentation on the website. The require
statement would still read "(require ... 6 1)."

This way, if someone says they are using version "3.5.6.0", Neil knows
they're using the current rev of the code,  but a previous
(short-lived) commit to the PLaneT repository that he quickly updated
to 6.1, but someone still managed to use it in that time. If a user of
his code only says "I'm using version 3.5", he can ask "what is the
full version number?", as opposed to trying to differentiate between
the user's version number and the PLaneT number.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Matt