Re: Attributes 'Version and 'Body_Version

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

I don't recall ever saying that the RM gave me the idea that I could do
anything but compare the two version numbers for equality. I think what I
said was that having discovered these strings, I might conceivably find some
use for them in identifying software versions in a manner that would be
dependent on the particular implementation - assuming one knew how those
numbers got built.

For example: Suppose you wrote a class that wants to store/load its data
to/from a file. Suppose that part of what it wrote to that file was the
version string. On reading the version string back in, it is possible for
the class to detect if it is consistent with the content of the file.
However, it might be more useful if it can detect some sequence to those
version strings so that it might be able to say "This file was created two
versions ago" or "This file was created by one version later than I am..."
and make intelligent decisions about what content to read in. I could
imagine how an implementation might have information coded in the strings
that might make it possible to determine lots of things about compatibility.
I could also imagine how some implementation defined pragmas might just be
able to add additional information to the string that might let the user
provide some compatibility information. So knowing how the strings change
and what can be detected from their content might just be useful
information - implementation dependent, but useful.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Robert Dewar" <dewar@gnat.com> wrote in message
news:5ee5b646.0111061939.595b61be@posting.google.com...
>
> What in the RM gives you the slightest idea that you
> can expect to do anything more than compare two version
> numbers?