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1. Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)'s status on Monday, 30-May-2022 12:34:32 UTC Nolan

   "Major Version Numbers are Not Sacred" by Tom Preston-Werner https://tom.preston-werner.com/2022/05/23/major-version-numbers-are-not-sacred.html

   This is a really interesting take, but I have mixed feeling about it.

   • Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)'s status on Monday, 30-May-2022 12:34:31 UTC Nolan

     in reply to

     I've worked on teams where any observable change is basically a breaking change, just because of how many people were using it (think spacebar heating https://xkcd.com/1172/). If we were being honest with ourselves, we'd bump the major every release.

     And I've also dealt with tiny OSS libraries that flatter themselves by releasing 17 major versions in a year, forcing me to comb through their release notes to find they made some tiny innocuous change. There is no perfect way to do semver.

   • Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)'s status on Monday, 30-May-2022 12:34:31 UTC Nolan

     in reply to

     Although maybe these are two aspects of the same problem. Take the "spacebar heating" issue.

     Hyrum's Law says that with a sufficient number of users, every observable change is a breaking change. So let's say you release 10 versions, and each version breaks 0.01% of your users.

     It's very likely that none of those breaking changes affect me. And yet, I have to read 10 release notes before updating. And maybe those 0.01% of users are glad you bumped the major? But it sure annoys the rest of us.

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 31-May-2022 05:39:31 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     Major version numbers are ill-defined and problematic and also sacred.
     
     @nolan
   • Sumana Harihareswara (brainwane@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Jun-2022 22:24:37 UTC Sumana Harihareswara

     in reply to

     @nolan btw isn't that blog post by the harasser who forced Julie Ann Horvath, one of GitHub's first woman employees, out of the company? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Preston-Werner#Resignation_from_GitHub

     Agreed that there is no perfect way to do semver

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