Why Standardize? Common Perception of What X.Y Means Tools Need to Compare Versions major [.minor [.patch]] [pre] "major" version: numeric, 0 means "experimental" "minor" version: new features ok, BC maintained "patch" version: bug fixes, tiny changes "pre" element: {dev,a,b,RC,pl}//N// Comparing: version_compare() function (from PHP 4.1.0) 0.x < 1.x < 2.x ... 0.1 < 0.9 < 0.10 < 1.0 ... 1.0dev1 < 1.0a1 < 1.0b1 < 1.0RC1 < 1.0 < 1.0pl1