One of the most often-used terms related to operating systems (OSs), software and Web services is Versioning. The term refers to the creation and subsequent management of products that may be released a multiple number of times. Versioning indeed, is basically an improved, upgraded or customized way of creation management and product release processes. Although they have different technical connotations, the words “versioning” and “version control” are often used interchangeably.
Versioning is an extremely popular practice in the software sector. The process of versioning can be briefly explained as follows:
Numerical identifiers consisting of two or three numbers and separated by periods are provided to every subsequent release of a product. Whenever there are significant improvements or changes in functionality, the first number (also called the “major number”) is augmented. Minor feature changes or significant fixes are accompanied by an increment in the second number (called the “minor number”). A third number, in case it does exist, is related to bugs in the product. This number (called the “revision number”) is increased whenever any bugs or faults are removed successfully.
So, we can see that the main function of versioning is to track changes of a document or a product over time. The versioning system can record who made a specific change, it allows removal of undesirable changes. Versioning also helps the user to know why a specific change was made and to know what the document contents were at a specific point in time. Versioning can also be used to archive different versions of an important document. This process, enabling users to have a control on changes over time, is called content versioning.
Versioning helps in promoting dedication and due diligence in software projects. It is extremely necessary for any collaborative and distributed development. With its ability for tracking every change as it is made, and also for reversing the changes as per the requirement, versioning is indeed a controlled and well-managed process, a huge improvement over the earlier “uncontrolled” tracking methods.
The functions of versioning are manifold and it is an extremely useful tracking process. Some of the most important benefits of versioning can be enumerated as follows:
- Version Tracking: Versioning helps users to compare the version of software of today with that of yesterday or one from the last year, since it keeps track of each version of the software. A comparison of how a particular version performs, develops solutions if and when bugs are found, and checking that freshly made changes did not result in new bugs are all made possible by versioning.
- Contributor Co-ordination: Versioning helps in co-ordinating the efforts of contributing teams, which might be located far away from each other. Copy of resources is sent to each of the contributors. They work separately on the resources, making changes in the copy. Finally, all the modified resource copies are collected back from the contributors and merged together. Any conflict that might arise if multiple contributors happen to make changes to the same parts in the copy can be solved at the time of the merger.
- Due Diligence: Versioning tracks the timings of all changes that have been made in software. Hence, it facilitates due diligence and regard to IP or intellectual property. Versioning helps in compiling a contributor list and detects the dates on which the contributions were made. For diligence needs, such lists can be double-checked with an IP contract list.
The version control method provides a way to monitor the regular, small changes as and when they are made by contributors. Those who are in charge of managing project outputs IP are notified by the automated systems. The notifications and also the logs that are provided to every individual modification, enable the project managers to trace and monitor every contribution.
In case software gets corrupted, versioning helps to recover the last uncontaminated version of the software. It can also track what action led to the problem, which made that change, and the time when the changes were made. Best practice policies are practised by Versioning regarding the provenance of contributors. The process can also come in handy in case of an IP violation. Versioning is also used for establishing precedence, particularly when a dispute about code or idea ownership arises.
A number of alternative versioning systems are available, in order to suit the needs of tiny local teams as well as those of huge distributed teams. Versioning has been, for some decades now, extensively studied and put to test in the software sector with authenticated and satisfactory results. Version control is allowed in the sites of Google Code and SourceForge.
The technique of versioning has gradually become one of the most important tracking techniques in the field of software applications. Versioning is ideal for coordinating software development, and particularly mitigating differences in culture and timezone, and hence, adds immence value to any software project.