reverse versioning system

this is one of those ideas that is either retarded or genius.

so, you know how everyone versions their software off the cuff? this is 0.1, that is 2.3.4, this is 5.00048, etc. it all seems so arbitrary. package management has to attempt to deal with that in a sane way, and if you're ever tried to manage the versions of CPAN modules... just forget it. there should be a simpler way.

why not go backwards? you could keep going forward into infinity or whenever someone thinks their change is important enough to deserve a major number bump. or you could go down all the way to 0. it all hinges on the idea that you clearly define what your software does, the goals you want to reach and the tasks you need to complete to get there. in theory, once you have completed it all you should be done with your program and it should never need another version because it accomplishes everything you set out to do. thus you will have "counted down" to zero.

first take your goals: these will be the major numbers and are broad ideas. your tasks are the minor numbers. you can have a third field of numbers for revisions but these would have to count up to make logical sense (if they are in fact only touched for revisions). as you complete each task and goal your version goes down by that much, so completing 5 tasks would bring your minor version down by 5.

this of course would not work for applications which keep increasing their goals. in theory you could add a billion tasks to your next goal so you can still add features. but eventually all your goals and tasks will be 0, so you need to design it for a purpose and not just keep throwing in junk for each new goal. this system may also only work to provide a "stable base", whereupon reaching version zero you know that the system is complete and ready for use. perhaps negative versions after that, since in theory this would only indicate new features?

package management/version control systems would all need to be modified to fit such a system, but in the end i think it would be a more sane standard than just "these numbers went up" and having to figure out for yourself what that means for that application.