Version Numbers

[Kelli of the Medusa]

First let me state i'm a complete idiot . I've been playing computer games for over a quarter of a century. There is something that has always annoyed me when dealing with game version numbers and patches. I understand that any number less than v1.0 signifies a pre release version of the game or patch and that anything greater than v1.0 is post release. My proposition is why not use a date for the version number? Using a yymmdd (year,year,month,month,day,day) format would still give a progressive ascending numerical value to any version number but would also server a double purpose of identifying the actual release date of the patch or the game. Time could even be incuded in the number such as YYMMDDHHMMSS for those times when several versions happen to be released on the same day. Since almost all games now days are released to the public before actually being finished, the release version of a game or patch being v1.0 has lost its significance and no longer has the credibility it once had. And of course any alpha or beta could easily be signified by using a lower case letter a or b. This just seems like it would be much easier on the end user to identify whether the version they are currently using is newer or older than anything they happen to find while looking for updates. Thanks for your time, I'll go back to fishing now

[spiritwolf]

Being a professoinal in the computer world, I totally agree with you !

/sign

[Cairenn]

Moved it to the "Wish List" forum for you, since this is the one the Blizz folks know to check for suggestions of ways to improve the game.

[aalnydara]

Here's a few reasons why developers use normal version numbers to begin with. Many times they use it to give a clearer indication of the types of changes that are in the new version. For instance, a common theme I've seen in a number of projects is a version number such as X.Y.Z.

X represents the major version number of the project. An increase in X indicates a sweeping change to the product. It could range from a complete re-write of the codebase to major features being added/removed. There are no guarantees on compatibility between it and the old version.

Y represents the minor version number of the project. An increase in Y indicates minor, but user-noticeable changes to the product. Generally these are smaller new features and generally nothing is removed. Generally, it's also compatible with older versions.

Z represents the revision number of the project. An increase in Z usually indicates bug fixes or code changes that don't change the usability of the product. You're pretty much guaranteed compatibility with older versions.

Again, this is only an example. Some places have versioning schemes much more complicated. Some are completely arbitrary. It all depends on the type of product and how important versioning is to the development cycle.

Simply using a date as a version number may add information you'd like to a product, but for most cases the release date is irrelevent because users simply want the latest version. You also lose the original information your versioning scheme might have provided.