Software Version Numbers Are Lame
Two things are happening on my computer now. First, I'm running my daily Fedora Core 3 up2date, which tells me a new version of Firefox, Firefox 1.0.2 is available. Second, my Firefox 1.0.1 browser is showing me the corresponding Slashdot story, titled "IT: Mozilla Firefox 1.02 Released."
A visit to the Mozilla homepage confirmed that the version number is 1.0.2. Slashdot is definitely wrong.
But, Slashdot is not the only one to blame. The version number itself shares at least half the responsibility. It has a usability issue. It is too similar to a number, yet is not a number. The human brain will do its best at trying to make it a number. And dropping that extra dot is a perfect way of achieving it.
Thnik abuot all the msesaegs with trasnposed charatcers that you might have receievd in the psat few yaers.
Now read the last sentence again. This time pay attention to the spelling. Isn't it any wonder that a normal person would try to read 1.0.2 into 1.02?
We as software developers talk about usabilities all the time, yet we can't even make our software version numbers usable!
It's just sad.
Re: Software Version Numbers Are Lame
"1.02" would be weird also...why the leading zero?
I think you generally need two digits: "FEATURE_CHANGE.BUGFIX". It's not like Java will ever change the "1" part of their number, for example.
But then you still might need "weird" numbers when you make a custom branch for a particular customer.
Re: Software Version Numbers Are Lame
To the extent that it is harder to subconciously turn 1.4.2_07 into something else, e.g., 1.4207, 1.4.2_07 is more usable than 1.0.2. The pure form of version numbers like 1.0.2, before any meaning is attached to the digits, is the root of this usability problem.
This is the case where you have to constantly remind your users "you mean 1.0.2" when they say or write "1.02". And no matter how many times you try to correct them, they don't care and make the same mistake again.
Re: Software Version Numbers Are Lame
1.1.0
1.2.0
...
1.9.0
1.10.0
If you read this as "One point one" rather than "One dot one", you tend to translate it to decimals in your head. Then 1.1 == 1.10.
All of this could easily be solved by changing the dot to a dash, but that would break a long standing convention. At this point it's easier just to deal with the confusion.