Software Versioning

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Akuma

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By software versioning, I mean the whole 1.0 thing. I've looked it up on Wiki but I am so bad at numbers, I still don't understand.

At first I thought the versions went from 1.0 to 2.0, maybe in increments of .1 until reaching .10, which then translates as a another whole number. (if that makes any sense)
What I've seen recently, however, makes me unsure of this idea.

Can anyone explain software versioning to me in layman terms?
I would greatly appreciate it.:hi:
 

Deleted member 42

In all honesty, it's gotten a little funky in some consumer software companies, because the Marketing department is involved. There's a decent overview here.
 

Akuma

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So do the fractions have a set pattern?

Like, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 2.0.

Or is it simply 1.5-->2.0 if the major update happens to come up then?

And how many fractions are possible before converting into a integer? Or is it (theoretically) limitless? ex: 1.13453??
 

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Gah . . .re: fractions, It Depends. It has a lot to do with the projected dev cycle/schedule and the number of builds . . . it's going to differ from company/developer to company/developer and even product to product. A lot of Open Source products, which may have lots of releases with very little obvious change will use franctions and even numbers like 1.2857--and you will very very often see that kind of after the decimal point number on a beta or alpha.
 

Akuma

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Wow, okay, I'm in over my head, then. I appreciate you're help. I'll get right to the point:
My WIP, which is very technology-computer based, is set in chapters of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.

I realize of course this is unnecessary, and that it would most likely be changed in publishing, but I'd still like to know if I'm being a technology dunce in labeling chapters with misunderstood jargon.
It's just a quirk of my writing that I obsess about, even if it isn't terribly original.

Thanks for your help!
 

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I think I'd probably go with whole numbers, unless you do something clever with a plot turn or something in one, and want to make it 3.5 or something.
 

spike

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Sometimes when software makes a major jump, 1.5 to 2.1 or whatever, it is because there were developmental levels in between that were not released.

So while the commerical software version might go 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.2 2.35, internally, the developers may have had 1.0 1.1 1.2 etc.
 

Rabe

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Wow, okay, I'm in over my head, then. I appreciate you're help. I'll get right to the point:
My WIP, which is very technology-computer based, is set in chapters of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.

I realize of course this is unnecessary, and that it would most likely be changed in publishing, but I'd still like to know if I'm being a technology dunce in labeling chapters with misunderstood jargon.
It's just a quirk of my writing that I obsess about, even if it isn't terribly original.

Thanks for your help!

Sounds like an interesting way of doing it.

I would look at it like this:

Chapter could be 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.
where if you numbered scene breaks (like Stephen King does) you could then make them 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.

Or if you do 'books' within the books, the first book could be 1.0 and the chapters then 1.01, 1.02, etc where the next 'book' becomes 2.0, 2.01, etc.

Either way you do it, I think it sounds clever in the book you're suggesting. But be prepared for some people not to understand it. I've been a part of a critique group that kept yelling at me and trying to remove numbered scene breaks cause they couldn't understand what the 'damned numbers' meant.

Even after I explained it.

(no, I wasn't with that group long - not when they wanted to protect a member who was writing a blatant Anita Blake ripoff).

Rabe...
 

benbradley

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If you want to be a Truly Cool Computer Geek, you would start off with Chapter 0. Seriously, I've seen at least one C language programming book start off with a Chapter 0. But you'd have to understand a little about C programming (specifically what arrays are. and that array indexes start at 0, instead of 1 for some other computer languages) to know why it starts with "Chapter 0." Your Chapter 0 could be, for an example, a prologue.

You could have something like this:
First chapter: Chapter 0
First scene: 0.0
Second scene: 0.1
Third scene: 0.2
Second chapter: Chapter 1
First scene: 1.0
Second scene: 1.1
Third 1.2
Fourth 1.3
Fifth 1.4
Sixth 1.5
Seventh 1.6
Eigth 1.7
Ninth 1.8
Tenth scene: 1.9
Eleventh scene: 1.10
Twelfth scene: 1.11

Now, never mind that the eleventh scene has the same numerical value as the second scene, as this appears to be the standard for numbering subtopics in textbooks, with the period just being a separator for these numbers rather than a decimal point indicading ones on the left and tenths on the right.

As a nerd, I'd be more concerned about getting it right from a technical point of view than worrying about what people who don't understand it think.
 
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spinnerin

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Another option, if you have an A plot and a B plot, is to imitate what some open source projects do, and use odd numbers for one storyline and even numbers for the other.

The Ruby programming language labels its experimental/development branch with a number like 1.9.2, while the stable or "release" branch is 1.8.5.

The 1 at the start means that we're still doing incremental updates to the 1.0 release, which could be like act one in a three or four part novel. The .8 or .9 tells you that we're looking at a subset of changes that are either experimental or stable (which could be mapped to an A plot and a B plot, as I said above), and the last decimal part is for a subset of changes within each of those branches.

Eventually the 1.8 and 1.9 branches are merged into a 2.0 release, which for your book could be the start of act two.
 

Akuma

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All right, thanks for your help guys.
I'm gonna research C programming and whatnot to get this totally right.
 

Deleted member 42

All right, thanks for your help guys.
I'm gonna research C programming and whatnot to get this totally right.

Gah.

Please, not C! Objective C, or even C ++ . . . mind, it could probably be done with just five lines of Perl ;)

Before engaging in research, you might post a couple of questions in terms of what your character would need to know/do
 

spinnerin

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Gah.

Please, not C! Objective C, or even C ++ . . . mind, it could probably be done with just five lines of Perl ;)

Before engaging in research, you might post a couple of questions in terms of what your character would need to know/do

If nothing else, we can help suggest the right programming language for the character to use. :)
 

benbradley

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If nothing else, we can help suggest the right programming language for the character to use. :)
Yes - my mention of C was just to describe why numbering should start with 0 instead of 1 (and this applies as well to most of the more recent languages). But also, I'm an old fart, and I think C++ is just too overloaded. :)

I suppose K&R is now considered OT (Old Testament)...
 

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I hear all the really cool coders use Object COBOL, where, like, you add 1 to COBOL, giving COBOL.
 

Akuma

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said
Gah.

Please, not C! Objective C, or even C ++ . . . mind, it could probably be done with just five lines of Perl ;)

Before engaging in research, you might post a couple of questions in terms of what your character would need to know/do

As I said, it does not relate directly with the plot--there's no way I'm going to harass the reader with loads of unnecessary jargon.

But since the plot itself has strong ties with computers and the "internet highway", I figured it might be neat to insert a little "flair" into the breaks of chapters.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to go find out what Perl is...
 
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