[30APR2021] Versioning Updates

[Fabio Almeida]

As of the 30th of April 2021, we have updated our versioning scheme to make it easier to both our developers and our users to know which version is which. New products or updates for existing products after today will follow this standard. Our changes are outlined below:

 

We use modified versions of known software versioning schemes. For numeric schemes, we base our releases on the numeric status schema. For spoken schemes, we base our releases on the semantic versioning schema.

The first number in our release scheme indicates the major version. An increment in the major release indicates backward-incompatible changes to the application and/or a major rewrite of the application. An increment of the major release will set minor and patch to 0.

The second number in our release scheme indicates the minor version. An increment in the minor version indicates a deprecation of existing functionality or any substantially new functionality or improvements introduced to the application. An increment of the minor release will set patch numbers to 0.

The third number in our release schema indicates the patch version. An increment in the patch version indicates backward-compatible bug fixes or minor additions to the program.

In numeric status, the fourth number indicates the channel (or stage) the application is in. The channels and their respective number in this schema are shown below:

• 0 - Production
• 1 - Alpha
• 2 - Beta
• 3 - Release Candidate

In semantic versioning, we indicate the channel by adding a hyphen to the end of the patch number and writing the channel. Any changes made during a non-production channel will increment the patch number as well. The suffixes for each channel in the semantic versioning schema are shown below:

• No suffix - Production
• alpha - Alpha
• beta - Beta
• rc - Release Candidate

 

Examples:

Written (All major version 1)	Numeric Version	Semantic Version
Minor version 2, third beta	1.2.2.2	1.2.2-beta
Minor version 2, first release candidate (after three betas)	1.2.3.3	1.2.3-rc
Minor version 2, production	1.2.4.0	1.2.4
Minor version 2, patch 1, production	1.2.5.0	1.2.5