[eml-dev] eml 2.0.1, release version numbers, and compatibility issues

[Matthew Jones]

Based on our definitions of versioning numbers, any changes in a 2.0.2 
version release MUST be backwards compatible with earlier 2.0.x 
versions.  In other words, all 2.0.0 and 2.0.1 documents should be valid 
2.0.2 documents.  If not, the version number should instead be 2.1.0, 
which indicates that people will need to change their applications and 
documents to fix broken compatibility issues that are introduced in the 
release.  Our versioning system for releases uses three numbers 
separated by periods, with each component representing the major, minor, 
and point release version, as follows:

Major release: Indicates a major architectural change to the schema, 
including major reorganizations or new features that substantially 
extend what is possible with the schema.

Minor release: Indicates new features and/or backwards incompatible 
changes were introduced

Point release: Relatively trivial fixes that do not introduce new 
features, and is strictly backwards compatible.  Usually used for fixing 
minor bugs or documentation issues, or similarly scoped changes.

Matt

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Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                       Ph: 1-907-523-1960
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinfo
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