Rust projects have a `Cargo.toml` which defines some of the project's
metadata. For example: Its version. And that version field must be
semver.
https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html#the-version-field
https://semver.org/
None of my projects use semver. I used "chaotic versioning" in the dark
ages (just used numbers that "felt right" -- really, just chaos) and
eventually settled on date-based versioning: "v14.01" means it was
released in January 2014. What changes were made in v14.01? Check the
`CHANGES` file. It lists breaking changes, additions, fixes.
My projects are very low traffic and changes made in releases are few in
number. That's because I use the `CHANGES` file as a gauge: I re-read it
very often and it's easy to notice when there are "enough" changes, so
it'd be time for a release. Since it's a bit awkward to do more than one
release per month, I try to slow down a lot before making a new release,
don't add new features, just let it stabilize.
I think this works well for my projects. I mean, really, there's not
much going on. Some examples:
https://www.uninformativ.de/git/xiate/file/CHANGES%2Ehtml
https://www.uninformativ.de/git/lariza/file/CHANGES%2Ehtml
https://www.uninformativ.de/git/jenny/file/CHANGES%2Ehtml
Sometimes nothing happens for almost a year.
I've been doing this for about a decade now. Semver became popular
around the same time. I don't remember if I considered using it back
then. It certainly wasn't as popular as it is today, so there is a
chance that I might not have known about it at all.
Still, it keeps bothering me (a little bit) that I don't use semver. But
then, I have a model that works for me -- and, honestly, I have
absolutely no idea if anybody "out there" (i.e., someone with whom I
don't communicate on a regular basis anyway) even uses my software. The
only thing I know of is that Void Linux has a package for my terminal:
https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/tree/master/srcpkgs/xiate
And I just saw that my browser is on pkgsrc:
https://pkgsrc.se/www/lariza
My Gopher server once was available in a Gentoo overlay, but I can't
find it anymore.
Other than that? Not a clue.
So, the idea of switching to semver is floating around in my head.
Should I do that? Does it make any sense? It would make it a *little*
easier for the ~5 people out there who use my stuff.
But I guess it would mostly cause confusion and unnecessary work ...
I'm not sure if semver would be useful in my cases. I'm not even sure if
it makes sense for me to use it for Rust projects, *unless* they're
libraries published on crates.io (which won't happen anytime soon).
I'm probably overthinking this. I never received feedback by anybody on
this topic. I did receive feedback on using obscure licenses and I get
the occasional bug report / feature request, but I don't remember anyone
ever mentioning version numbers. So ... *shrug*, I guess?
