Release Numbering System

[icelus]

I'm always amazed, though not necessarily in a good way, at the way some modders assign release numbers to their mods. Personally, I feel that whole number releases are much easier to follow for users, and easier to keep up with for the modders themselves. A downside, I suppose, is that the number can go up rather high, e.g., WeiDU.

 

As I see it, however, it is so much easier for people to see that they have downloaded and installed IWD Tweak Pack v7 rather than ReallyCoolPartialConversion (RCPC) v 5.32b BP-BGT Edition (with patch v2.1 and v4.01, but not v3.2, unless you've only installed SoA).

 

I'm exaggerating (a bit), but seriously--why do people use non-whole numbers (especially when coupled with suffixed letters)? Does anyone find this system unnecessarily complex and confusing?

[Gabrielle]

Sometimes. Gibberish like v 5.32b BP-BGT Edition (with patch v2.1 and v4.01, but not v3.2, unless you've only installed SoA) is like WTF? Keep it simple.

[berelinde]

Er, no, not really.

 

When I did mine

0.# = alpha = most of it works (not public)

1.# = beta = works, but new stuff added

2.# = non-beta = confident that I got them all, and I'll be really mortified if you find something

 

You'll note that I still haven't gotten past the 1.# step. I'm adding BGT, so I want to see how it plays with megas before getting cocky.

[Gabrielle]

I use full numbers like 100. When I beta tested a mod, I did 9x otherwise my mod versions are 10X. I don't think I got past 103 in any of my mods. The last digit means the newest release.

[SimDing0]

I very much favour whole-number releases, but for whatever reason the group of people who have adopted it is very small: Weimer, Cam, myself, ...? (I'm actually guilty, too. With Quest Pack I pretty urgently wanted to emphasise that v2 was a major step up from the awfulness of v1, hence the decimal numbering was born.)

[igi]

All my mods are whole numbered releases.

I agree with Ice, it seems easier for users to understand.

[Gort]

I think it is how it works with all software - the more new stuff added - the bigger is the step of versions. It means, for example, that version 2.00 contains new but untested feature, while 1.78 does not contain it, but it's more reliable. Does it really matter, though? If you don't like 5.32, imagine it 532, that's all. "b" is beta, I see no other way to warn people that it is beta. "BP-BGT" is somewhat hideous, but again, how are you going to distuinguish BGT and TuTu versions?

[theacefes]

I prefer whole numbers as well. If it's a beta, I simply use Beta 1,2, 3 and so on. Hopefully if I've done what I've set out to do in a mod, there really shouldn't be a ton of betas. Then it's on to V1, V2 , and so on.

[CoM_Solaufein]

I prefer decimals. The only time a mod is going to get a version 2 or higher is if something radically changes with it. Minor changes like bugs fixes don't warrant that status.

 

Majority of your games, patches use the decimal system which is where I got it from.

[cmorgan]

Well, except for 13, I like the whole number system for released mods.

 

For internals, I used to do the incremental BG1NPCv12a1.exe, BG1NPCv12a2.exe, BG1NPCv12a3.exe,

 

Then I moved to naming them for whomever was new and contributing major changes

 

(BG1NPC-Pro5-1.exe, chevalier.rar, berelinde-1.exe)

 

but finally gave up and started labeling the first component with the date so I could check it against what I said was fixed in the forums, and naming sign the date:

 

BG1NPC091807.exe

 

 

Of course, nost mods don't have a full year of development and over 17 versions in one setting....

[the bigg]

WeiDU will move to a decimal format, 201.00 being the next version. While the current format works fine, it's hellish for testers to upgrade between different builds if they use setup-xxx.exe rather than weinstall for testing. Hence, X.00 is stable, whereas X.Y, Y!=0 is a non-stable release of X+1.0.

Which'd mean that end users modders will only deal with X.00 versions, which shouldn't be too different from X, hopefully

 

(As an aside, it will print v20100 rather than v201.00 due to backwards compatibility).

[Andyr]

I very much favour whole-number releases, but for whatever reason the group of people who have adopted it is very small: Weimer, Cam, myself, ...?

 

Me!

[Shaitan]

All my mods are whole numbered releases.

I agree with Ice, it seems easier for users to understand.

As a plain modloverfango-grab-them I really like the whole number. I - for my part - find that ie QP 2,2-2,3 only should be done with smaller bugfixes, and thus ver. 3 with new components.

 

Regards

[Kulyok]

I very much favour whole-number releases, but for whatever reason the group of people who have adopted it is very small: Weimer, Cam, myself, ...?

 

Me, too!

 

(As we were heading towards the fountains of Bakhchisaray this morning, I had this conversation:

"But the funniest thing is, they wouldn't release v13! They released v14 right after v12 instead, imagine."

"Heh. What are they going to do when v666 is coming out?")

[cmorgan]

Why, jump to 999, of course... I don't want to be responsible for the End of the Worrld As We Know It (but I feel fine... cue guitar solo - )