[RFC] Show version number as "1.7.0-dev" not "1.7.0 (dev build)"

A user wrote to dev@ today:
> I have now taken the plunge and moved to using version 1.7 tsvn for my
> development.
>
> After updating one of my working copies from 1.6 using TortoiseSVN
> from 2011/03/20 subversion 1.7.0 r1082999 [...]

I don't know the whole chain of communication or miscommunication that
led to this user saying he's using "1.7" and "1.7.0", but I do suspect
that where we report the version:

  $ svn --version
  svn, version 1.7.0 (dev build)
  [...]

people could easily interpret "(dev build)" as "and, by the way, this
copy is built with debugging symbols and/or other stuff that's useful
for developers".

I think it would make sense to change the output of "svn --version" to
display exactly the same "compact" version string that "--version
--quiet" gives, as well as a slightly more user-facing explanatory note:

  $ svn --version
  svn, version 1.7.0-dev (under development)
  [...]

The version string is then clearly "1.7.0-dev" rather than "1.7.0". I
think that's an obvious change that could only reduce the potential for
confusion from our side.

The "quiet" output would remain as

[[[
$ svn --version --quiet
1.7.0-dev
]]]

Comments?

- Julian
Received on 2011-03-21 10:38:43 CET