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Comment by dchuk | Hacker News Reader

One of the best mac apps in existence but holy jeebus is the naming a mess:

- It's called iTerm2 Version 3 now, rather than iTerm3 - It's called iTerm2 Version 3 now, but the actual app version is 2.9

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The app's name is iTerm2. Version numbers have to increase lexicographically, so the version 3 beta is called 2.9. I'm open to suggestions :)

In SemVer [1], it's prescribed that the first number is for breaking changes, the second number for new features, and the third number for fixes. So this would be v3.0.0.

It also allows you to add a suffix though for beta-type versions, so the beta would be v3.0.0-beta, or v3.0.0-rc1, etc.

[1] http://semver.org/

SemVer works great for libraries, but it falls apart for actual software IMO. How would you define a "breaking change" in a software ? Would it be a complete redesign ? Or maybe a feature removal (Does that ever happen ?)

Versions are supposed to convey meaning over how much has changed to the app between two versions. iTerm got soooooo many new features in this new version, anything smaller than a major bump would feel out of place.

I do agree the actual version should be v3.0.0-beta1 tho ^^.

AppleScript isn't backwards compatible, sounds like that would fit just about any definition of a breaking change.

> SemVer works great for libraries, but it falls apart for actual software IMO

SemVer is for APIs. From the spec:

> 1. Software using Semantic Versioning MUST declare a public API.

Yes, the public API for a library that the developer interfaces with. Not a web APi.

I think it should be called iTerm 3. George, thank you SO MUCH for your work on this excellent app.

I want the first "stable" release to be 3.0.0, which is lexicographically before 3.0.0-beta. Admittedly this is only a limitation of Sparkle, but I just haven't prioritized modifying Sparkle above fixing real bugs.

Call it iTerm3

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