> Which "line of reasoning"?

You said, "why is it easier if the version number is written in the file,
than simply by trying to read the file?"

We've decided to use versions to coordinate between readers and writers,
with the guarantee that forward-incompatible changes will not go into an
existing closed/adopted version. That doesn't work without communicating
the version used for a data file because the version defines the
compatibility.

To me, asking whether we really want to use a version (vs just trying to
read) is revisiting the question of whether we want to use a version. And
we do want versions. We decided that with a vote.

> What is "this"?

We have decided by a community vote to use a version number to bundle
changes together. Sorry for the confusion, I thought it was clear from the
context.

> We have decided to adopt a versioning scheme. We have not decided to
> write a version number in the footer and that is what I am discussing
here.

I think that most of us think that using a versioning scheme requires
writing those versions into files. Otherwise you have no idea what
guarantees from that versioning scheme are available to a reader.

It sounds like you're suggesting that we don't version data files. I don't
think that makes sense with versioning and I'm pretty sure most people that
voted to use versions would agree with me. That's why I'm asking you to let
us move forward. No one else I've spoken with is surprised by needing to
communicate a file's version. And this has come up in several of the
discussion threads so I'm struggling to see how it has not been clear.

We need to move forward. Should I start a thread dedicated to asking the
community whether most people thought that "using versions" would mean
writing the version used for a file in the file metadata?

Ryan

On Fri, Sep 4, 2026 at 12:41 AM Antoine Pitrou <[email protected]> wrote:

> Le 03/09/2026 à 23:28, Ryan Blue a écrit :
> >
> > My interpretation is also that this line of reasoning is advocating for
> not
> > using versioning.
>
> Which "line of reasoning"?
>
> > Antoine, I think this has been clearly decided [...]
>
> What is "this"?
>
> We have decided to adopt a versioning scheme. We have not decided to
> write a version number in the footer and that is what I am discussing here.
>
> Regards
>
> Antoine.
>
>
>

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