I'm trying to rationalize my code files names (on disk) appending a version number to them. Until now (in the best case!) I was just appending an incrementing counter. But it's not really talkative. Some time I make also some whole name changing but it can be confusing in the long term. What I would need for instance is something that would tell me for a file what is its status in the developpment history. If a major refactoring has occured, I should see it. Or is it just about small bugs corrections or cosmetics touch of secondary importance (temp files, possibly deletable) ?
Since a while I've noticed that some IDEs are able to append a number each time a build is launched. Visual studio does this, yet not really useful (the version numbers are very long!), this seems to show that there could be a logic behind the convention used. I just cant parse it.
To take an example (leaving aside the case of big serial numbers), it's very common to use a format like this one: prog_nameN.M. N is a number, and M another, with sometimes letter at the end:
Code: Select all
'example
myprog1.02b
This all said; my question is simply about the meaning of M and N and how to decide how to get them incremented.
I think for example that a rational rule could be like: "more than 100% of my previous code has changed THEN M += 1". While in another hand, the decimal part N should be ruled more finely.
If someone knows about this, and has some ideas or experience of a good system to maintain version numbering, would be glad to hear about it (any kind of personal suggestion is welcome anyway).
By advance, thanks.