Alternatives to version numbering

[Peter Corlett]

On 4 Jan 2008, at 01:04, Toby Corkindale wrote:
[...]
> Unfortunately the people I contract to sometimes respond with "But our
> sysadmins say we can only use the vendor supplied versions".

I've been a sysadmin in the past, and I occasionally have to remind  
some of the more self-important sysadmins that I could do their job  
before breakfast, and furthermore that I'd be quite happy to replace  
them with a small shell script if that is what they would prefer.

Once the petulance is over and it's finally understood we speak the  
same language, a happy and useful working relationship can then blossom.

It turns out that sysadmins have an even lower opinion of the average  
programmer than we have of sysadmins. Then again, I've met the average  
programmer and it's probably just as well I didn't have a bit of  
cheesewire to hand because I'd be doing a stretch at Her Majesty's  
Pleasure after having to spend time with some of our more lazy and  
incompetent Java programmers.