[texworks] Packages for openSUSE and version numbering

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

On 2010-12-04 06:18, Atri wrote:
> I provide packages of texworks 0.2.3 for openSUSE (11.2, 11.3 and the
> under-development version 11.4) [1]. I am also packaging rpm's for the
> development branch of texworks [2] for openSUSE, mainly for testing
> purposes.

This is great, thanks! The more people are using Tw (and the more people
are willing to test development builds), the better.

> I was wondering if the developers would recommend that the
> current svn (702) version is stable enough generally to be a replacement
> for version 0.2.3. I would like to push the current development branch
> of TeXworks for inclusion into openSUSE by default and it would help me
> to know if a stable release based on the current svn tree is close by.

The current svn version is seeing a lot of changes lately (bugfixes,
plus some updates for scripting), so I wouldn't consider it "stable". We
are working towards a new stable release, however, which would be the
version of choice to include by default.

> Also I was wondering what the version naming scheme would be so that the
> package-manager could recognise an upgrade to version 0.3.0 when that is
> declared stable. If I were to use, for example, the current versioning
> system adopted by the texwork developers (e.g. 0.3 r.702, etc.), when a
> stable version is released as 0.3.0 the package-manager might not
> recognise that as an upgrade (0.3.r702 >? 0.3.0). I am using a version
> naming scheme along the lines of 0.2.99svn702 instead to avoid this
> scenario. Please let me know if this is desirable. On the other other
> hand if the stable release is to be called 0.4.0 instead (I read
> something along those lines on the website), I can just use the 0.3.r702
> scheme keeping consistency with texworks' versioning).

The current versioning scheme is that (major) stable releases are all
even numbered, while odd numbered ones are development versions. So the
next stable release will be 0.4.0. Nevertheless, I would recommend using
0.5.0svn... or similar in the future in analogy to the stable releases
(see https://launchpad.net/~texworks/+archive/ppa/+packages for the
debian packages I provide).

> [2] These packages are provided as texworks-svn from my home project,
> and is not widely accessible yet. I intend to change the more accessible
> packages to this development version if the developers concur.
> https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=texworks-svn&project=home%3Abadshah400

As said above, the 0.3 series is not a stable release. We're currently
working on stabilizing it, but the next stable release will be 0.4.
Nevertheless, I think it is great to offer the 0.3 development builds
(separately), so people who are feeling adventurous or want to help in
development can easily access the latest version.

HTH
Stefan