A minor little syntax issue

posted on June 7th, 2010, 2:05 am

This is just a little syntax error. Why do people have version numbers with more than one decimal point?

Ie:
According to devs: Version 3.1.2
Proper Syntax label: Version 3.12

May I ask why this is? I am a bit picky with proper grammar and syntax. Like when people say "to much" instead of "too much". I am just curious why have multiple decimal points. Because I just think eventually it would go to this degree:

3.8.1.2.1.1.1.1.0.5.4

Seems ridiculous if you think of it. I am not saying that it is bad, rather a grammarical error.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 2:10 am

I think it's to distinguish it. 3.1.0 is a separate installation, and is very different in many ways from 3.0.7.  I think they could go to 3.0.10 if they chose to, but they thought they had changed enough of it to merit it being a new version.  But it wasn't a complete overhaul like 2 to 3 was, so it wasn't 4.0.0.

[cabal]

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:28 am

Last edited by cabal on June 7th, 2010, 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's not a standard number where you have integers, fractions, and decimals. Generally, the periods in software versions are used to show the extent of a change. For instance, a program could start at v1.0.0 with the patches that fix bugs being v1.0.1, v1.0.2, etc. while patches that add functionality could be v1.1.0, v1.2.0, etc. In this example, it would only go to v2.0.0 following a major overhaul of core aspects of the game such as modifications to the engine.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 4:48 am

3.1.2 is just a shorthand the rest of those numbers are for developer builds. Its not an error

posted on June 7th, 2010, 6:50 am

Seems ridiculous if you think of it. I am not saying that it is bad, rather a grammarical error.

You mean grammatical, right?

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on June 7th, 2010, 1:09 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on June 7th, 2010, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

'i.e.' is short for id est, so you can't leave out the periods.

Starting a sentence with "because" is generally considered bad form.

Grammar refers to natural language, syntax can be used for natural and computer language.

Hope that helps

EDIT: incidentally, minor and little is redundant 

[Optec]

posted on June 7th, 2010, 1:23 pm

Last edited by Optec on June 7th, 2010, 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

thats not an error. version numbers arent numbers, they are identifiers. Your "proper" syntax would miss information. You need the points to actually establish syntax (same as IP addresses, 19216802 does not identify a unique device, while 192.168.0.2 does)

3.1.2 is the second hotfix for the first content patch for version 3. there could also be a 3.1.15 if we reach 15 hotfixes. thats something different from 3.12, as you suggested, as you would not be able to distinguish between the 12th content patch or the second hotfix for content patch 1

development builds have much longer versions numbers, as there are several release candidates

[Atlantisbase]

posted on June 8th, 2010, 12:47 am

Last edited by Atlantisbase on June 8th, 2010, 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

To evaluate a bit on what Optec said.

When you make software you can specify a versioning, at least to some extent. This takes the form of: [Major Version].[Minor version].[Build].([Revision])  (or something to the effect thereof). The last one or two, build and revision, aren't usually advertised and are sometimes specified by the compiler.

Some people aren't aware that each dot in the version number is significant and omit them either out of ignorance or for the sake of brevity. So yes, all the decimal points matter and when people omit them they are technically making a miss-statement as 3.12 is different from 3.1.2, but it goes unnoticed by most as we all know what we're talking about.

Edit: Corrected versioning terminology

posted on June 8th, 2010, 1:50 am

The other thing is i wondered about is maybe each dev has their own version number. So for instance Optec changes something and Doca Cola changes something else, so they both download each other version, and test them in a game.

posted on June 8th, 2010, 3:14 am

Probably not, that would only cause them to go cross eyed. My guess is that since this isn't a full blown piece of software that they follow the pattern Optec outlined. That is each complete overhaul, which usually entails changes to the engine, changes the Majjor version number. For example, look at the FleetOps.exe file in your Fleet Ops install directory; it's version reads 3.0.0.13 or rather major version 3, minor version 0, buld version 0, revision 13. Note that it doesn't reflect changes from patches because the engine itself hasn't been changed. Patches which add new content but don't make drastic changes update the Minor version; and patches which make minor changes like balancing, etc. result in a change in the build number. The numbers probably don't change until release time.

If they were actually developing a piece of software from scratch then the numbers might have a sort of significance like you suggested.