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Best explanation of SemVer I've seen yet: FAILS.FEATURES.BUGS

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Aug 6, 2021

Replying to @simonw

Absolutely. The thing about semver major version numbers are that they don't mean new stuff, they're a permanent reminder of how many times you got the API wrong. Semver doesn't mean MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, it means FAILS.FEATURES.BUGS

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Simon Willison

@simonw

Aug 7, 2021

The idea that a major version bump reflects a previous mistake in your API design continues to prove surprisingly (to me) controversial I think my position on this issue is best described like this: major version bumps should be rare and apologetic, not careless and frequent

Simon Willison

@simonw

Aug 7, 2021

I think I see what's happening here Will and I are thinking about Python libraries, where it's possible to start a new library (like sqlite-utils or Rich) with a strong idea of the scope of the project Which means aiming not to break backwards compatibility is a reasonable goal

Simon Willison

@simonw

Aug 7, 2021

But there are plenty of other categories of software where the scope is FAR less obvious at the start of the project, and where all kinds of outside factors may force backwards incompatible changes whether you like it or not So I think "FAILS" offended people who work on those!

Nicholas Schiefer

@nschiefer

Replying to

@simonw

I think the "branding traditions" (for a lack of a better word) in the software domain also really matter here. Adobe really wants to call the latest-and-greatest in image editing software "Photoshop (N+ 1)" even if it's really different from Photoshop N. Ditto with MS and Word.

5:43 PM · Aug 7, 2021Twitter Web App