[Python-ideas] module version number support for semver.org

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Jörn Hees writes:

 > Currently there are about 1 % of all version numbers on pypi which
 > show exactly the incompatibility described in
 > http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/#semantic-versioning :

 > To me the fact that somewhat between 1 and 64 % of the packages in
 > pypi follow semver is enough to ask why we don’t fully support it

So, as I understand what you're saying, PEP 440 *does* support a large
subset of the semantic versioning actually used on PyPI (63/64 =
98.5%).  I find that simple math a pretty compelling reason not to
make the PEP 440 spec more complicated.

 > and maybe even encourage it.

The fact that semantic versioning would be a good, even great,
standard if it were the *only* standard is not compelling.  "The
One Standard to rule them all" is a mirage: "The great thing about
'standards' is that there are so many to choose from!"

Worse, there are so many that *have already been chosen*.