From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-04-24T05:17:49+09:00
Subject: Re: find a best version (of a package)

Ara.T.Howard wrote:

> i think the problem with both these approaches are that they may not reflect
> the semantics of version numbers!  for instance, i use the linux/libtool style
> of versioning (the same used by ld.so - man ld.so)
> 
> see
> 
>   http://raa.ruby-lang.org/list.rhtml?name=library
> 
> specifically
> 
>   http://www.codeforpeople.com//lib/ruby/library/library-0.0.0/doc/
> 
> so
> 
>   if my code requires version 2.1.5, i could use 7.5.0 but NOT 3.0.4

That was an interesting read on version number semantics, but your 
example conflicts with my understanding. Wouldn't the 2.1.5 requirement 
be satisfied by 3.0.1 and in fact by 3.0.x for x>=1? The last digit, 
IIRC, is a measure of backwards compatibility with previous interface 
versions. So 3.0.4 isn't even possible, because there are at most 3 
previous interface versions, not 4. By the same token 7.5.0 doesn't work 
with 2.x.y thru 6.x.y because it's "interface age" is only 0.

Did I misunderstand?