Editing Software versioning (section)

==== Designating development stage ====
Software in the experimental stage ([[Alpha test|alpha]] or [[Betaware|beta]]) often uses a zero in the first ("major") position of the sequence to designate its status. However, this scheme is only useful for the early stages, not for upcoming releases with established software where the version number has already progressed past 0.<ref name="semver" />

A number of schemes are used to denote the status of a newer release:
* ''Alphanumeric suffix'' is a common scheme adopted by semantic versioning.<ref name="semver" /> In this scheme, versions have affixed a dash plus some alphanumeric characters to indicate the status.
* ''Numeric status'' is a scheme that uses numbers to indicate the status as if it's part of the sequence. A typical choice is the third position for the four-position versioning.
* ''Numeric 90+'' is another scheme that uses numbers, but apparently under a number of a previous version. A large number in the last position, typically 90 or higher, is used. This is commonly used by older open-source projects like [[Fontconfig]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison of development stage indicators
|-
! Development<br>stage !! Semantic<br>versioning !! Numeric<br>status !! Numeric<br>90+
|-
| Alpha || 1.2.0-a.1 || 1.2.0.1 || 1.1.90
|-
| Beta  || 1.2.0-b.2 || 1.2.1.2 || 1.1.93
|-
| Release candidate (RC) || 1.2.0-rc.3 || 1.2.2.3 || 1.1.97
|-
| Release || 1.2.0 || 1.2.3.0 || 1.2.0
|-
| Post-release fixes || 1.2.5 || 1.2.3.5 || 1.2.5
|}

The two purely numeric forms remove the special logic required to handle the comparison of "alpha &lt; beta &lt; rc &lt; no prefix" as found in semantic versioning, at the cost of clarity.