[Mono-dev] Mono version numbering

[Jerry van Leeuwen]

Unfortunately both kinds of confusion cannot be avoided through a single 
version number.

The only way to express a "feel" that Mono 1.x is getting very close to 
complete .NET 2.0 compatibility (where it is not already) would be to 
number Mono as 1.8.x / 1.9.x as it gets really close to feature complete.

Whichever way you choose to solve the version numbering issue I think it 
would be really good idea if the front page of Mono maintained a brief 
summary table of the most recent 2 maybe 3 versions of Mono that indicates 
for each which version of .NET it is closest to fully supporting, and 
which also indicates the main features it adds or lacks relative to that 
version, imaginary example:

        Mono 1.8.x = .NET 2.0 + xxx (3.5) - yyy (2.0) - zzz (1.1)
        Mono 1.9.x = .NET 2.0 + xxx (3.5) + qqq (3.5) - yyy (2.0)
        ...
        Mono 2.0.0 = .NET 2.0 + xxx (3.5) ... etc. but no longer any "-" 
on any 2.0 feature

That'd give developers a quick browse to www.go-mono.com to find out the 
"detail" of version compatibility.


> I think the only way to minimise confusion in the developer population
> that does not keep up-to-date with the details of development on Mono
> is to let at least the major version track full .NET compatibility.
> That is, do not move to v2.x.x until at least .NET 2.0 can be fully
> supported, do not move to v3.x.x until at least .NET 3.0 can be fully
> supported and maybe even do not move to v3.5.x until .NET 3.5 is
> supported. 

This does not solve the confusion that we have today which is that
developers assume that until we have Mono X.Y we wont support version X,
which is not the case.


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