03 November 2014, 12:57

Hello,

For the next version of Mahara, we are going to change the release numbering system as discussed in the last developer meeting.

Our current numbering system does follow any numbering system strictly and thus, it does not offer too much insight into where Mahara is up to and how much change has occurred from one release to another.

We have decided to move to a date-based release versioning system for the Mahara releases. The format will be YY.MM.x where

• YY is the year in 2-digit format;
• MM is the month in 2-digit format;
• x is a minor version number, i.e. for security updates or any other important updates within a given release.

So instead of 1.11.0, we will release 15.04.0 in April 2015, and that will be followed by 15.10.0 in October 2015 and 16.04.0 in April 2016. After April 2015, we will be releasing 15.04.1, 15.04.2 and so on as security and important minor updates to the stable release of the 15.04 version.

One of the biggest advantages I see for moving to the date-based versioning system is that you as users know when your version of Mahara was released by simply looking at the version number and thus know how old or recent your version is. It is also easier to know until when your version of Mahara is supported.

For example, if you install Mahara 15.04 and we support Mahara for 18 months, i.e. 1.5 years, you are supported until October 2016, thus Mahara 16.10.

Check out the full discussion if you are interested. See also the description on the tracker.

Cheers
Kristina