Adjust Release Version Scheme

[programming-wolf]

I didn't want to just remove the text from the readme, so I transferred it here. It is not decided yet, it should not distract readers of the README.

If you think it is not needed anymore, please feel free to close this issue.

---

Proposal for a (slightly) more sophisticated versioning scheme

Why make this "more complicated"?

• A uniform versioning scheme (or style) for all artifacts (including exam sheets) would be highly beneficial.
• We really do not want to define, document, communicate and use a different versioning scheme for some documents.
• Versioning for the exam sheets has the most far reaching requirements. When we define a scheme that satisfies these requirements and is not overly complicated, we are settled for all artifacts.

What are the special requirements for exam sheets?

• Exam sheets are maintained and distributed in several languages.
• Only DE and EN versions are maintained directly by the FL Working Group. All others are based on these and updated by external entities.
• We need to be very precise about which version we refer to.
• We need to be very precise about which versions have identical contents. (= "They contain exactly the same questions in another language.")
• We have (regularly) encountered edits that contain only minor changes within a single language version that do not substantially alter the meaning of the affected questions. E.g. minor wording changes, grammar fixes, etc.
• Propagating these small changes across all languages by raising the version number of all language versions
  • is impractical as it would imply additional workload for many stakeholders (all certifiers)
  • makes no sense as there actually is no change in the other language versions
• Exam sheets exist in different "variants" or "questions sets", but this will have no implications for the versioning of other artifacts.

What is proposed?

The version scheme should be {year=major}.{minor}.{lang}.{patch}, e.g. 2020.1.de.0

• Changes that only affect one language version and do not substantially alter the question itself increase patch
• Changes that substantially alter a question need to propagate across all languages:
  • if this is not the first release in the current year: increase minor, reset patch to 0.
  • if this is the first release in the current year: set year to current year, reset minor (to 0 or 1, see side quest below), reset patch to 0

Considerations/Discussion

• This is IMHO applicable to all other artifacts without being overly complicated and satisfies requirements for exam sheets.
• As year=major could be confusing, but essentially boils down to a naming problem, we should discuss which solution fits best:
  • {year=major}.{minor}.{lang}.{patch}
  • {year}.{major}.{lang}.{patch}
  • {year}.{major}.{lang}.{minor}
  • or even {year}.{major}.{minor}.{lang}.{patch} (which might be overkill)
• Exam sheets will be versioned with {variant}.{year=major}.{minor}.{lang}.{patch}, e.g. Fragebogen A.2020.1.de.0 (or whatever we choose for versioning after variant)
• Maybe not all versions might be distributed for release. We should consider the requirement to utilize consistent versioning for our internal review process as well. Would we be fine with e.g. Version 2020.3.en.2 being the first officially released version for a 2020 english curriculum? If not, we have an orthogonal requirement to internally label pre-release versions which might complicate things pretty much.

Sidequest: Start with 0 or 1 after increasing year

• This is about whether the first version for e.g. 2020 is something like 2020.1.whatever or 2020.0.whatever.
• Personally I have no strong preference for one or the other
  • Semver suggest that 0 would be the right choice when we consider year to indicate a major version.
  • but 1 looks prettier and more mature