Standards numbering nomenclature

Text to go in the Assessment and Roadmap document

The numbering nomenclature of the working drafts of IVOA standards in preparation is not homogeneous across WGs and makes it quite confusing for people not used to it.

Although there are already some numbering scheme envisaged (http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/Notes/DocStd/Procedures-20040425.html#WorkingDrafts), it would be useful to have a numbering nomenclature which clearly and immediately shows that a certain IVOA standard is a REC or in a WD. Of course, that would take place only for the new standards to be produced.

Various options can be envisaged, so some discussion should take place within the TCG in coordination with the Standing Committee on Standards and Processes to determine a possible better scheme.

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A potential option from ChristopheArviset

There might be various ways to define such a nomenclature, here is a possible one:

• Version 1.0 is the REC version. This number is given to the document AFTER it has successfully gone through the Recommendation process.
• Version 0.9 is the version number of the document to enter the RFC process. If the document has to evolved during the RFC process, it may evolve to v0.9.1, v0.9.2, ….
• all versions of the working drafts while they are in the working groups should be between v0.1 and v0.8

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An other option from NormanGray

This might be more intricate than necessary. Here is an alternative proposal:

• All Recommendations have a version number n.m
• All pre-Recommendation documents, including internal drafts, formal working drafts and proposed recommendations, have a version number yyyymmdd, with the status indicated by a prefix.

Thus for a given document, we will have DRAFT-20080101, WD-20080201, PR-20080301 and either REC-1.0 or plain '1.0'. That scheme is monotonic, and makes the document's status explicit rather than implicit.

With that in mind, I'll co-sponsor this. -- NormanGray