Re: [NTG-pdftex] Version numbering

9 Jun 2005

      Hi,
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"Heiko" == Heiko Oberdiek  writes:
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\pdftexmainversion: readonly integer for A 
  \pdftexsubversion:  readonly integer for B 
  \pdftexbugfixversion: readonly integer for C
if you really intend to introduce new primitives, it would be better
to call them \pdfmajorversion and \pdfminorversion instead of
\pdftexmainversion and \pdftexsubversion.  It's easier to remember
because we already have \pdfoptionpdfminorversion.

As far as compatibility is concerned, it's probably best to leave
things as they are and add a new primitive \pdftexrevisionnumber.

\pdftexversion is quite straightforward as it is now.  It can easily
be split into major/minor version.

\pdftexrevision can be kept for backward compatibility.  It returns a
character. 

\pdftexrevisionnumber returns an integer.

Internally (in pdftex, the program), it is most straightforward if the
revision number is an integer rather than a character (maybe it
already is).  It can be used easily by printf to type the banner, and
\pdftexrevisionnumber has nothing to do but return this integer.
\pdftexrevision has to translate the number to a character.  This is
straightforward and absolutely backward compatible.

I'd then vote for the following translation scheme:

0  => ''
1  => 'a'
2  => 'b'
  ...
26 => 'z'

That means that a release has not automatically to be a bugfix release.
We can have 1.30 instead of 1.30.0 if \pdftexrevisionnumber=0.

\pdftexrevision expands to an empty string in this case.

Cheers,
  Reinhard

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