One way to use SemVer for software versioning

Everyone has their own system for versioning in their software development process.

Semantic Versioning is very popular of course.  It basically takes the form of:

major.minor.patch-prerelease+build

• Major for breaking changes.
• Minor for backwards compatible feature additions.
• Patch for bugfixes meant to be backwards compatible.
• Pre-release tags for internal versioning, building up to a release.
• Build for internal build numbers, useful if you build a lot.

There is a precedence order to SemVer numbers to essentially designate which version is "newer" in some sense.

Pre-release and Build tags do not participate in the precedence order.   So when specifying ranges of versions, those pre-release tags are kind of ignored in things like NPM contrary to precedence order as SemVer defines it --- reality is different than theory, right?

Pre-release tags are great for Designating development stages but when they are removed to do a non-pre-release release (e.g. a final release), it messes up the lexicographical ordering --- i.e. messes up the order in which they show up in my file browser. haha.

How I use SemVer

So I'm trying a SemVer compatible system that respects the 2nd and 3rd laws: "Don’t mess with math", and "Make friends with infinity.  In other words, don’t be afraid to increment".

The basic idea is: keep pre-releases to a patch level, release at the next patch level.

The rules are:

1. Start at 0.1.0.
2. Increment patch number to make a release
3. Increment major, minor, or patch (whichever you're targeting for next) to make pre-releases
4. Pre-releases are tagged a1, a2, ..., b1, b2, ..., rc1, rc2, etc.
5. Use increasing build numbers if you need
6. Use a "." then another build field if you must, like for adding a non-increasing alphanumeric build field (e.g. a SHA)

Example

So you'll get versions of WildApp like these, e.g.:

• WildApp 0.1.0-a1
• WildApp 0.1.0-a2
• WildApp 0.1.0-b1
• WildApp 0.1.0-b2
• WildApp 0.1.0-b3
• WildApp 0.1.0-rc1
• WildApp 0.1.0-rc2
• WildApp 0.1.1
• WildApp 1.0.0-a1
• WildApp 1.0.0-a2
• WildApp 1.0.0-b1
• WildApp 1.0.0-b2
• WildApp 1.0.0-b3
• WildApp 1.0.0-rc1
• WildApp 1.0.0-rc2
• WildApp 1.0.1

I'm going to give it a try at least.