[higgins-dev] Version numbering of Higgins itself

["Paul Trevithick" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bjorn,

I have been trying to apply the principles in
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Version_Numbering but I find that I still can't
entirely apply them to Higgins project. To explain the problem, let me first
describe the four levels of granularity in the Higgins hierarchy.

Four levels of granularity
---------------------------
"Projects" in Higgins are called plugins in the above document. [For java
projects every project is indeed a plugin. But for non-java projects a
project might be a C++ lib, etc.] For projects (plugins) we are following
EXACTLY the rules in the above document.

"Features:" We only have one feature and we DO plan to follow the rules
exactly.

"Components" in Higgins are sets of related projects. But they are just
organizing concepts and not digital artifacts. We have not found a need to
have version numbers for components. So there is no problem here.

"Solutions" in Higgins are complete working apps or web services. There is
no equivalent concept in the above document. But since we do not use version
numbers at the solution level, there is no problem here either.

"Higgins" is the name for the entire project. This is roughly equivalent to
numbering of the entire Eclipse IDE (e.g. Eclipse 3.1 or 3.2).

How to version the entire Higgins project
-----------------------------------------

The entire Higgins project (coarsest level described above) was called
"Higgins 1.0" for the release that we completed in February. We had desired
that the next big release in about 6-12 months be called "Higgins 1.1". But
you said that that wouldn't work. But why not? Now that I've re-read it, I
see no rules in the above document that cover the entire project. It is
silent at any level coarser than "feature".

In fact, it seems that Eclipse Foundation (EF) itself names its own IDE
versions based on subjective human judgment, and marketing considerations,
and not on rules driven by feature and plugin versions at all. I don't
believe that the EF uses the "feature numbering" rules to choose version
numbers for the IDE. The Higgins project needs the same flexibility and for
the same reasons. Just like the Eclipse IDE release train, Higgins does a
simultaneous release of many features & plugins. Just like the Eclipse IDE
we'd like to use version numbers whose minor number changes approx once per
year (e.g. Eclipse 3.1, 3.2, 3.3) and every now and then for something truly
cosmic, changes in the major number (e.g. Eclipse 4.0).

-Paul