[Haskell-cafe] Why does Haskell PVP have two values for the major version? "A.B..." and a couple other questions

[Adam Bergmark]

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 2:42 AM, Zach Moazeni <zach.moazeni at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Forgive me if this is a frequently asked question, I've searched the web
> and can't find an answer. I originally sent this to the Beginners list and
> someone said this might get more responses here instead.
>
> What is the history that led up to the PVP
> <https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Package_versioning_policy>
> specifying two values as the major version?
>
> I come from other tools that primarily use http://semver.org/ (or a
> variant) and I'm confused in what cases I should bump "A" but not "B" (or
> bump "B" but not "A")?
>
> A concrete example: If I make backwards incompatible changes to a package
> whose latest version is 1.0.x, should the next version be 2.0.x or 1.1.x?
> What sorts of things should I consider for choosing 2.0 over 1.1 and vice
> versa?
>
>
Both are allowed, it's up to you and there is no explicit rule to decide.
Some people seem to be bumping A for big changes, or to signify that the
package is now stable.


> Another question, by far most packages I have encountered either lead with
> a 0 or a 1 for "A". Does that have some bearing on the long term stability
> that package users should expect in the future?
>

Formally, no. But some people use it like that.


>
> Finally, if "1.0.x.." is meant to convey a level of long term support,
> does "B" get rarely used? Since "C" version bumps to include backwards
> compatible additions, and "D"+ for backwards compatible bug fixes. (I know
> "D" isn't technically a PVP category, I'm just relating it to the patch
> version of semver).
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> -Zach
>
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