Trailing decimal places would serve the same purpose.

e.g. 0.5.1.01

This is really no different then commercial software development with 
build numbers and regular internal test builds.

I'm not sure about the second point- I'm more inclined to contribute to 
something I'm using, whether it's 0.5 or 3.1. Do Perl or Python history 
offer some insight into this?

Nick


Hal Fulton wrote:

> A few people in recent weeks have been bemoaning the fact that software
> projects (in the RAA and elsewhere) often consist of "mostly leading
> zeroes."
>
> I have been thinking about this. Some very valid points have been made.
>
> But at the same time, it seems to me that many projects nowadays are
> 1) following the "release often" model and 2) hoping to attract
> contributors and collaborators.
>
> And these two issues are probably linked.
>
> In any case, if a release is made, say, every ten days -- I think it
> makes sense to have leading zeroes. The alternative, it seems to me,
> is that in a year we are all using Version 47.5 of the software.
>
> That might be preferable to some, but I like to think of version 1.0
> as being of at least post-beta quality (although we all know it really
> starts being useful at 1.1).
>
> Just my opinion.
>
>
> Hal
>
>